Speaking: Comprehending the Theory for Later Practical Use

Throughout history, foreign languages have been taught and learned taking into account different approaches and methods making emphasis at the beginning on the teaching of vocabulary and grammatical structures. These days new approaches and methods suggest that more emphasis should be given to the use of language for communication. That is why in Colombia and other countries efforts have been made to try to teach the foreign language (in our case English) for communicative purposes. However, there has not been a significant change in getting that purpose. A lot of importance is still put on the linguistic competence. About it, Nunan says: “while linguistic competence is necessary, it is not sufficient for someone who wants to communicate completely in another language” (Nunan, 1999, P 226). As we can see, both sociolinguistic and conversational skills are equally important to succeed at communicating. In this essay we do not pretend to compare or decide whether linguistic competence is more important than sociolinguistic competence and conversational skills or vice versa. We pretend to show the characteristics and positives features of the aspects of languages that are not being emphasized in the teaching of languages in order to have clearer and broader criteria in the design of tasks that enable us to enhance the sociolinguistic and conversational skills on the students.

To understand all this better, some definitions of what communicative competence is?, and some concepts of speaking, and its nature will be presented in the following paragraphs. Also, some conclusions and implications of these theories on the teaching of languages will be presented at the end of this paper. For many years, teachers and other people involved in the teaching of languages have talked about communicative competence, making it one of the most important aspects to take into account in the design of tasks. Sandra Savignon offers a clear and complete definition of communicative competence. Savignon define it as: “the ability to function in a truly communicative setting-that is, in a dynamic exchange in which linguistic competence must adjust itself to the total informational input, both linguistic and paralinguistic, of one or more interlocutors…it is also context-specific, which means that a competent communicator knows how to make choices specific to the situation” (Savignon cited in Nunan, 1999, p 226) As it can be seen above communicative competence is not conformed only by knowledge about grammar and vocabulary as many people wrongly believe. But also, by knowledge about how to use the language properly. That is, to use all the components of language to accomplish a communicative purpose. One of the most important aspects of Communicative Competence is speaking.