1

FIRST ASSIGNMENT

Jairo Alberto Ramos Aguirre

Language Program, Corporación Universitaria del Caribe (CECAR)

Linguistic

German Buriticá Quintero

Oct, 2022
 2

Corporación Universitaria del Caribe “CECAR”

Bachelor in Education in Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program

English Linguistics

First Assignment

Objective: To have a clear

understanding of the terms Competence &

Performance based on different authors and the

relation to L2

Resource: “Competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories

and practices” by David Newby

“Competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories and

practices” examines the different ways in which both competence and performance

have been defined by linguists and how these different interpretations have influenced

foreign language learning and teaching. Read the article carefully, and answer the

questions.
 3

a. Based on Chomsky definition about competence and

performance, describe how this competence could be clearly evident in an L2

classroom. (You can give examples).

Meanings must first be taken into account. competence: is what one knows.

performance: it is what is done with knowledge. these skills are mainly evident when

mistakes and slips are explained.

Performance´s examples:

- Me y I.

Slip: Our teacher told James and I to learn more grammar

Correct: Our teacher told James and me to learn more grammar. It is a

slip because it is known which pronoun is the correct one, but there are

confusions at the moment.

- There, their, they're = 'There' is a place; 'their' is a possessive

adjective; and 'they're' is the contraction of 'they are'. These words are

homonyms and slips can occur when there is no clear context.

- Academic or casual English If u want to know my opinion to,

IDK who should be president. It is inappropriate language for academic subjects.

Correction: If you want to know my opinion, I do not know who should be

president.

Competence´s examples.

- The spider spun it's web. Its a very beautiful website. its without

an apostrophe, is the possessive version of a pronoun It's with an apostrophe, is

the contraction of it is or it has. The correct form would be: the spider spun its

web. It's a very beautiful web.

- A child is learning the conjugation of regular verbs in the present

simple, and believes that it is the same for all pronouns.

I run I runs

You run You runs

He run He runs

She run She runs

It run It runs

We run We runs

They run They runs

It should be explained to them that according to grammatical rules, third

person singulars have a different conjugation from regular verbs where s is

added to the end of the verb. The other pronouns do have the same verb.

- Thus: I run. You run. I have runs. She runs. It runs. We run. They

run.

b. “We have to account for the fact that a normal child acquires

knowledge of sentences, not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or

she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk

about with whom, when, where, in what manner (Hymes).”

- What does this sentence mean?

The ways of learning are very varied among all students, children in

particular have many ways of learning, visual, auditory, sensory and motor.

Depending on the type of information you receive and how you intend to use

it. But this knowledge can have many uses in different situations and the

child knowing how to identify them is used not for performance but for

competence.

- How the idea does not necessarily show Chomsky’s idea about competence and

performance?

Chomsky's idea is that competence is what one knows and the

performance how that knowledge is used, in this order of ideas when a child

learns things that he can use in different situations, it is the child who

decides when and how to use them, doing use of competencies and not of

performance as Chomsky would suggest.

c. What are the schematic constructs?

Schematic constructs are mental representations of knowledge that facilitate

language processing and understanding when interacting with learning. It has to do with

constructivism. Schemas are constructed by the subject, are dynamic, and consist of

semantic and episodic units that represent characteristics of situations. Keeps personal

elements and conventional elements for its good perception and interpretation.
 6

d. In 1980 Canale and Swain, mentioned by Newby (2011) provided

a description of competence based on four categories. What are those

categories? Explain.

Canale and Swain's four categories are grammatical competence, sociolinguistic

competence, discursive competence, and strategic competence.

- Grammatical competence is in charge of morphological rules,

lexicon, semantics and phonology.

- Sociolinguistic competence is responsible for successful and

correct communication, in verbal and non-verbal language.

- The discursive competence has to do with the coherence and

cohesion of the texts, in this way the different texts can have better meaning and

body.

- Strategic competence has to do with the correct use of

communication strategies such as paraphrasing, substitution, coining new words,

which are often affected by deficiencies in linguistic competence.

e. Write your own conclusions about competence and performance

and how these two terms affect the SLA? Provide examples to support your

opinion.

Competence and performance are skills that help improve learning because in

the case of competence, it helps to have better knowledge, in this case about a second

language, English, so it can be used as a learning tool on linguistics, phonetics,

vocabulary, semantics, pragmatics and more. Performance on your part helps you use

that knowledge correctly in your daily environment. Knowledge by itself is not of much

use if you do not know how to use it, that is where performance plays a fundamental

role for the application of knowledge in different areas. These two skills helps make

learning durable, meaningful, and more understandable in meaning and use.

For example. When we learn the meaning of new words, we also learn in what

contexts to use them. example: between and among. they mean the same thing, but they

are used for something that is between individual elements (between) and for something

that is in an undefined group (among) so competence and performance are used.

References.

David, N., 2011. Competence and performance in learning and teaching: theories and

practices. [pdf] University of Graz. Available at:

<https://pv.cecar.edu.co/edupol/course/view.php?id=10203&section=1>