UNIT 1.
INTRODUCTION TO
LANGUAGE
LEARNING THEORY
1.3 Competence vs.
performance
HISTORY
• Noam Chomsky, an
American linguist, first
introduced the concepts of
“performance” and
“competence” as foundations
for his Generative Grammar.
COMPETENCE
According to Chomsky,
competence is the ideal
language system that enables
speakers to produce and
understand an infinite number of
sentences in their language and
to distinguish grammatical from
ungrammatical sentences. This is
unaffected by "grammatically
irrelevant conditions" such as
speech errors.
PERFORMANCE
The term linguistic
performance was used
by ​Noam Chomsky ​in 1960
to describe “the actual use
of language in concrete
situations”. It is used to
describe both
the ​production​, sometimes
called ​parole​, as well as the
comprehension of
language.
Chomsky separates competence and performance; he
describes 'competence' as an idealized capacity located
as a psychological or mental property or function and
'performance' as the production of actual utterances.
Competence is the system of knowledge that
native speakers of a language possess.
Performance is the actual utterance of the
expertise and speech a speaker has. In his
elaboration of generative grammar, the
concept of “linguistic competence and
performance” was first introduced by Noam
Chomsky, an American linguist.
Competence is the pre-vocal condition of a
speaker. Whenever we utter something, we
think about the same in our minds. We start
collecting many words and structures for the
ideas to be said. Then we express that idea.
This collection of ideas, thoughts, views,
words, and grammatical structures is called
competence. In these pre-vocal situations,
we distinguish grammatical sentences from
ungrammatical ones.
Performance is the utterance of
the words and sentences we
decide to put forward. It is the
performance of the ideas,
views, thoughts, words, and
grammatical structures we
choose to speak before
speaking. “Performance” is the
performance of the speaker.
The better competence we
have, the better our
performance will be.
https://skaeenglish.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/linguisticcompetence-and-performance/
Our “performance” cannot be
performed until we have
competence. And it is a good
sign that we have competence.
We are efficient in competence.
Our performance is the
amalgamation of thoughts and
words. A speaker has to be
aware while separating words,
structures, and ideas for
performance. “Competence” is
what we know, and
“performance” is what we
produce.
COMPETENCE:
An idealized capacity
Versus
PERFORMANCE:
Actual utterance
Balboni, Paolo. (2020). A Non-Culture-Bound Theory of Language Education. EL.LE. 9.
10.30687/ELLE/2280-6792/2020/01/001.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Snifosc_U
http://maritatere.blogspot.com/2011/04/what-you-know-when-you-know-language.html
Competence and Performance Implication in the EFL Class
Declarative knowledge
This form of knowledge is available to the conscious
brain. You can verbalize and contemplate it. This is
about knowing ‘that.’ For example, you may
know that riding a bike means pedaling and keeping
your balance by steering.
Competence and Performance Implication in the EFL Class
Procedural knowledge
Knowing what it takes to ride a bike doesn’t mean you
can actually ride one. This is where procedural
knowledge is about knowing ‘how’. Here the brain
learns how to perform the pedaling and steering
motions to keep you upright and riding.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-probably-suffer-from-declarative-knowledge-overload-jurie-rossouw
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Jr51xXSbW4s