Thoughts on Socioliguistic Competence

In Canale and Swain’s Model of Communicative Competence, there are four components, namely grammatical competence, socioliguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. The first one deals with words and rules which most of us are very particular about. The second one includes knowledge of sociocultural use of language. Discourse competence on the other hand is related to the learners' mastery of understanding and producing texts in the modes of listening, speaking, reading, and writing while strategic competence refers to compensatory strategies in case of grammatical or sociolinguistic or discourse difficulties, such as the use of reference sources, grammatical and lexical paraphrase, requests for repetition, clarification, etc.

Since we are usually very particular with the first one and most of us can easily tell whether one is grammatically competent or not, let’s now talk about the second, sociolinguistic competence.How do you answer questions when asked in English? Do you also answer in full English or you have the habit of having it in Tag-lish? How do you soften requests? Do you add endearing words? Do you try to add gestures or establish a kind of eye contact? Does your relationship with the person affects how you talk to him/her? These are just some questions which deals with how people use language.

I remember one of my experiences two years ago in a shopping mall. I was browsing for some products at CD-R King (a shop for cheaper tech gadgets and parts^^). There was this young lady who bought something. At that time, the cashier’s machine had some malfunction so she had to write the information and details of purchases in a receipt (that classic paper receipt^^). Of course, the cashier had to ask the customer’s name. This lady told the cashier her name saying “Donna” (with an American accent, pronouncing her name with that short O sound). Because of her “Americanized” sound, it sounded like “Duh-nah”. That was how the cashier heard it. So, the cashier asked her again, “ Ma’am, Dannah po?” (“po” - is a polite expression in Filipino language, similar to “yo” in Korean language). The lady responded in an annoyed way “Donna, Donna!” (but still with that “Americanized” sound). After a short while, the cashier eventually understood it as “Donna”. But, what bothered me was when the lady made some side comments saying “ Oh my God, di alam ang short O sound” (Translation: Oh my God, she doesn’t know the short O sound) with raised eyebrows. I don’t know exactly what the profession of that lady is but she was too judgmental of what the cashier knows.

Should a cashier know about short O, long O, short E, long I, etc.? Are they in a training room or in an English class? Remember, they are in a mall and this shop is not for the elite. This lady may have a good skill in pronouncing words but she doesn’t know language well. She was too arrogant of what she knows, not considering that she has limited knowledge of how a language functions. In short, she doesn’t have sociolinguistic competence. She doesn’t know when and how to use a language in societal context.

I have many experiences of seeing/hearing people become so proud of what they know about English but do not put them in the right context. Yet, I think I can consume a very big space here if I share all of them.

Anyway, the bottom line is, “we use language for communication”. We should use the language considering many other factors such as the audience (people you are talking with), and the context (the situation and place). Manner of delivery is also another consideration. We should get our message understood. Therefore, we should use the language properly.

“Express, not Impress.” – This is a saying I want leave you to remind everyone that the very purpose of using a language is to make us understood and communicate our ideas to others.




References:

Reinhold Peterwagner, What Is the Matter With Communicative Competence?: An Analysis to Encourage Teachers of English to Assess the Very Basis of Their Teaching. Lit Verlag, 2005

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