Communication Competence

Overview

Communication competence has been conceptualized in a variety of ways; however, the common link among all scholars is the assumption that communication competence is important and essential in society. There are six broad categories of human competence: fundamental competence, social skills and competence, interpersonal competence, linguistic competence, communication competence, and relational competence. These categories offer a general grouping by which conceptualizations of communication competence can be organized. Communication competence becomes essential to all the categories because communication is the foundation, center, or heart of all of these categories. The term communication competence, as it is contemporarily understood, originated in the work of Dell Hymes. Hymes developed the term communicative competence, out of which emerged a four-part typology that included as its fourth part strategic competence. Contemporarily, when people think of communication competence, they are really referring to strategic competence, whereby their success in interaction is defined by their knowledge, skills, and motivation, as well as the appropriate and effective use of communication skills and knowledge.

Hymes, a sociolinguist, considered communicative competence dependent on tactical knowledge and the ability for use. The definition has since evolved to incorporate a cognitive and behavioral element. Scholars have argued that studying cognition alone ignores the performative aspects, which include ability or skills. Knowing how to do something does not necessarily mean following through in action. As a result, competence and performance are not always equated; that is, knowing how to do something does not always result in appropriate behavior, and appropriate behavior does not always relate to understanding of that behavior. For example, a student might know how to give a perfect speech, but the behavior during the speech indicates otherwise. Or a student might memorize the multiplication tables without really understanding the principles of multiplying. Moreover, competence and effectiveness are not the same. Competent communicators do not always accomplish every goal (competent without being effective); nor do incompetent communicators always fail (incompetent but effective). For example, a child who wants to go to a party might competently communicate what is desired but may not be effective in achieving the goal when the request is met by a firm “no” from a parent. These observations have led some scholars to consider communication competency to consist not only of knowing but also of knowing how (the actual doing), knowing what one did, and knowing why the results occurred in that particular situation. As a result of these various conceptualizations, communication competence can also be seen through three domains of learning: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective.

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