چکیده:
C h o msky’s original notion of grammatical competence
encountered many criticisms. The most influential counter idea was
that of communicative competence. The term is most usually
attributed to Hymes (1971) referring to the use of language in social
context. This notion is, as Hudson (1996:224) states, ‘’ much more
broadly based than the ‘linguistic competence’ of Chomskyan
Linguistics.’’ In addition to referring to the knowledge of linguistic
forms, it includes one’s knowledge of how to use linguistic forms
appropriately (Ibid). Thus, over the past several decades, the notion
of communicative competence has become a central preoccupation
of language course designers. The main change it has caused in
second and foreign language instruction is the shift in teaching
methodology from a focus on the structural properties of the target
language to an emphasis on the expression and comprehension of
meaning . In other words, the main concern in second and foreign
language curriculum has changed from fostering learners’ linguistic
/ grammatical accuracy to enhancing learners’ communicative
competence necessary for real life communication.
T h us, the study deals with the notion of communicative
competence and attempts to present some basic criteria for the
development of learners’ communicative competence. The paper
falls into three sections. The first section provides a brief review of
literature on the notion of communicative competence presenting
theoretical background to the notion. The second section introduces
some basic criteria for the development of learners’ communicative
competence. In the light of these criteria, the third section attempts
to provide a sample of learning activities and techniques. Then, it
presents some pedagogical recommendations that aim at enhancing
learners’ communicative competence to help them become more
able and successful language learners and users.