The problem of ethnocentric bias in speech actstudies: Implications for language teaching

  • Cecile Le Roux Department of Linguistics Stellenbosch University

Abstract

Most language teaching specialists today hold the view that the aim of second language teaching should be to facilitate learners' acquisition of so-called "communicative competence". Leaving aside the many questions concerning the meaning and use of this term that are being hotly debated in the literature, I will use the term "communicative competence" to refer to the system(s) of knowledge that underlie the ability to use a language both accurately, that is, in a grammatically correct way, and appropriately in different social and situational contexts.1 It is with the latter aspect of communicative competence in particular, viz. the knowledge underlying the ability to use a language appropriately in context, that this paper will be concerned. Let us call this aspect of communicative competence "pragmatic competence".2
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