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Dell Hymes's Construct of “Communicative Competence”
Author(s) -
CAZDEN COURTNEY B.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
anthropology and education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1548-1492
pISSN - 0161-7761
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1492.2011.01144.x
Subject(s) - communicative competence , competence (human resources) , repertoire , construct (python library) , psychology , sociology , linguistics , epistemology , social psychology , pedagogy , philosophy , computer science , literature , art , programming language
Cazden reflects on theoretical and sociopolitical origins of Hymes's construct of communicative competence in events occurring just before and after 1960 in the U.S. She comments on Hymes's emphasis on competence not as abstract systemic potential of a language, but as capability located in individual persons; and she explores competence as both individual repertoire and group reservoir. She reminds us that Hymes's “appropriateness” is primarily about emergent, creative, non‐situationally determined use of language. [Dell Hymes, communicative competence, appropriateness, individual capability versus systemic potential]