Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language.

Factors that define a Communicative

The aim of this essay is to study Language and Communication.

1. First, I will deal with language as communication. To do so, I will provide some definitions and the main
properties and functions of language. Then, I will introduce the concept of Communicative Competence.
2. Second, I will talk about spoken and written language. On the one hand, I will present the historical attitudes
towards spoken and written language; and on the other hand, I will define the main characteristics and
differences between writing and speech.
3. Third, I will deal with the different factors that define a Communicative Situation. In this light, I will define the
Communication Theory and introduce the main ways in which communication occurs and the processes it
entails. In addition, I will attempt to identify the key factors affecting any communicative interaction.
4. Finally, I will compile the main conclusions of this topic.

This topic explains the most important theories which have influenced language learning and communication.
Language is the primary means of communication between people all over the world. Traditional Foreign
Language teaching concentrated on getting students consciously to learn items of language in isolation. These bits
of information would be mainly used to read texts and only occasionally for oral communication.

In Krashen’s terms, it could be said that people got to know about language (learning) but could not use it in a real
context (acquisition), since the focus was not on communication, but on a piece of language. Nowadays, the
communicative language teaching tries to bridge this gap between learning (output) and acquisition (input).

Nowadays English is used as lingua franca to facilitate communication among people all over the world. So,
studying English, students can communicate with people from other cultures, but it also shows them different
cultures and realities. By learning a foreign language, students will overcome stereotypes, understand and respect
differences between people and cultures. That is why Krashen highlighted the importance of using language for
real communication in foreign language teaching.
Therefore, understanding what language is and manage the main factors that define a Communicative Situation,
in order to use English for real communication, is basic in foreign language teaching.

After having introduced this topic, I will develop the first part, Language as communication. I will provide relevant
definitions of language, its main properties and functions of language.
Language is the most important means of human communication. It is used to: Convey and exchange
information; Prompt actions; Commit oneself to do something; Open, hold and end social actions; and Convey and
exchange artistic function.
Sapir (1921) said: “language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas”.
Later in time, Hall (1964) established that: “the institution whereby humans communicate by means of habitually
used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols”.
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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

Third, Yule (1985) differentiated human language from any other types of signaling. For him, language was a
unique system of communication and described it by means of the following properties:
➢ Communicative signals: Large numbers of meaningful signals (eg. morphemes or words) produced from a
small number of meaningless units (eg. phonemes). Human language is very unusual in this respect. Apes, for
example, do not share this feature in their natural communication systems.
➢ Displacement: This is the ability to use language to talk about times, places and people other than the ‘here
and now’. (Bees: they convey some of this information in their ‘dance’ which they employ to pass on
information about food sources.)
➢ Productivity: This is an important characteristic of human language allowing us to continuously create new
utterances, combining the ‘building bricks’ of language in ever new ways. Human languages are therefore
continually evolving.
➢ Arbitrariness: This means that there is generally no natural, inherent relationship between the signs (i.e. sounds
or letters) we produce and their meaning. For this reason different languages can use different signs to refer to
one and the same thing e.g. a flower in English, is a Blume in German, is a Flor in Spanish or a fleur in French.
➢ Cultural transmission: This refers to how languages are acquired by our children. The assumption is that there is
no genetic which would enable a child to simply start speaking for example English at a certain age, although
Noam Chomsky challenges this with his theory of Universal Grammar, but rather that children need to be
exposed to a language (and culture) in order to acquire it. This means, for example, that a child born in Korea
to Korean parents but then adopted by French parents in France will tend to grow up speaking French as
his/her first language and not Korean (unless the French parents make sure the child is also exposed to
Korean). Many animals, however, do seem to pass the ability to communicate on to their offspring genetically
e.g. dogs will bark even if they have never heard another dog.
➢ Discreteness: is also something that is said to distinguish human languages from other forms of animal
communication. It means that the sounds of a language differ sufficiently from one another for a native
speaker to distinguish them and thereby know which sign with which meaning is being used at any one time.
(eg. "cat" doesn't gradually change in meaning to "bat")
➢ The use of the vocal-auditory channel: sounds emitted from the mouth and perceived by the auditory system.
➢ The use of written or mimics channels to add our message or just communicate by those channels.
➢ Reciprocity: a sender will be a receiver and also they will change their roles
➢ Specializations The signal produced is intended for communication and is not due to another behavior. E.g. A
dog barking is a natural reaction, but is not produced to specifically relay a particular message
➢ Rapid fading: Signal lasts a short time.
➢ Total feedback: The sender of a message also perceives the message. That is, you hear what you say. This is not
always true for some kinds of animal displays.
➢ Semanticity: There is a fixed relationship between a signal and a meaning.

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

Apart from that, Jakobson in 1960 highlights the main functions of language. They are: Referential function,
Expressive function, Conative Function, Phatic function, Poetic function, Performative function and Metalingual
Function.
➢ The Referential Function corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental state.
"The autumn leaves have all fallen now."
➢ The Expressive Function (alternatively called "emotive" or "affective") relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best
exemplified by interjections and other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an
utterance but do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow, what a view!"
➢ The Conative Function engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated by vocatives and
imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"
➢ The Poetic Function focuses on the message (the code itself, and how it is used). It is the operative function in
poetry as well as slogans.
➢ The Phatic Function is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the
Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions of the
weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the keys to open, maintain, verify or close the
communication channel: "Hello?", "Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...
➢ The Performative Function not only describes a given reality, but also changes the social reality they are
describing. E.g.: "I now pronounce you man and wife" - used in the course of a marriage ceremony
➢ The Metalingual Function is the use of language (what Jacobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself. (This
entire essay is an example of metalinguistic Function).

Later, Halliday (1973) grouped these functions into 3 metafunctions which are interrelated and by means of which
we can describe any reality. These metafunctions are: Ideational function, Interpersonal function and Textual
function.
➢ The ideational function is language concerned with building and maintaining a theory of experience.
➢ The interpersonal function refers to the grammatical choices that enable speakers to enact their complex
and diverse interpersonal relations.
➢ The Textual Function The term encompasses or covers all of the grammatical systems responsible for
managing the flow of discourse. These systems create coherent texts related to a context or situation.

In 1980 Canale and Swain defined the term “Communicative Competence” as the ability to apply grammar rules in
sentences and also to know when and where to use them and to whom.

Chomsky (1957) defined LANGUAGE as the innate ability to produce grammar rules, called Language Acquisition
Device. Native speakers subconsciously know of the grammar rules of their language, which allows them to make
infinite sentences in their mother language. This is what he called “Competence”.
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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

Later, Hymes (1966) added to this definition of LANGUAGE its RULES OF USE. Hymes then replaced Chomsky’s
concept of “competence” with his own concept of “Communicative Competence”. He thought that a native
speaker doesn’t only produce grammatically correct sentences (competence), but also knows in which situations to
use them, that is, where, when and with whom. Hymes distinguished the following 4 aspects:
➢ Systematic potential for creating language
➢ Appropriacy, what language is appropriate in a given situation.
➢ Occurrence, native speaker knows when something occurs in a language
➢ Feasibility, native speaker knows if something is possible in a language.

Later in time, Canale and Swain (1980) defined COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE as the knowledge and skills
required for communication. They used the term Communicative Competence to refer to the relationship between
grammatical competence (knowledge of the rules of grammar) and sociolinguistic competence (knowledge of the
rules of language use).
The term Communicative Competence was divided in four components:
➢ 1st Grammatical competence: the ability to produce structured comprehensible utterances taking into account
grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and spelling.
➢ 2nd Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge of the sociocultural rules of language and discourse.
➢ 3rd Discourse competence, which is the ability to produce coherent spoken and written texts using cohesion
➢ 4th Strategic competence: the ability to make adjustments during the course of interaction.

Savignon (1983) offered a description of how these 4 components interact because he thought that
Communicative Competence was a dynamic rather than a static concept.

The Organic Law for Improving the Quality of Education 8/2013 December 9th highlights the importance of
developing both oral and written skills in Primary Education so that Primary students become Communicatively
Competent in the foreign language, divided it into 5 sub-competences:
1. GRAMMAR COMPETENCE: the ability to use the linguistic units according to the rules established in the
linguistic system.
2. DISCOURSE COMPETENCE: the ability to use different types of discourse and organize them according to the
communicative situation and the speakers involved in it.
3. SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCE: the ability to interact in specific contexts, in accordance with the accepted
usage of the determined linguistic community.
4. STRATEGIC COMPETENCE: the ability to define, correct or in general, make adjustments during the
communicative situation.
5. SOCIOCULTURAL COMPETENCE: awareness of the social and cultural context in which the foreign language
is used.

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

Now I will present the second part of this topic, SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE. I will first provide some
historical attitudes towards spoken and written language. Them, I will point out characteristics and differences
between writing and speech

Regarding the historical attitudes, written language was traditionally considered to be superior to spoken
language. Written language was the medium of literature.

During the 20’s and 30’s, some linguists such as Bloomfield argued in favour of studying speech as the primary
medium of communication. He pointed out that speech is older than writing, it develops naturally in children and
writing systems are mostly derivative, that is, they are based on the sounds of speech. In view of this, there was an
urgency to provide techniques for the analysis of spoken language and consequently, written language became a
tool of secondary importance in the linguistic science. Nowadays, the functions of speech and writing complement
each other.

Regarding the Spoken language, we should define Speech as the universal material of human language.
Phonetics is the science that studies the description and classification of speech sounds. Phonetics has three main
fields:
➢ Articulatory Phonetics, related to the Production of sounds.
➢ Acoustic Phonetics: related to the transmission of sounds.
➢ Auditory Phonetics: related to the reception of sounds.

Dealing with Written language, we should points out that writing systems evolved independently of each other at
different times in several parts of the world. Two types of writing systems can be established: Non-phonological
and Phonological systems.
➢ Non-phonological systems don’t show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of language.
In this system, the graphemes (pictographs, pictograms, logographic or hieroglyphic) provide a recognizable
picture of the entities as they exist in the world. For example, a set of wavy lines might represent the sea or a
river. Chinese or Japanese.

➢ Phonological systems show a clear relationship between the symbols and the sounds of language.
Phonological systems should be divided in:
• Syllabic systems where each grapheme corresponds to a spoken syllable
• Alphabetic systems where direct correspondence between graphemes and phonemes

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

Dealing with the differences between spoken and written language, we should distinguish differences related to
their Physical form and Mode of communication.

In relation to the physical form:

➢ Speech: uses phonic substance in the form of air-pressure movements; Gradual progress, it is built little by
little; A means for daily communication; Phonic and auditory inconveniences, disturbing sounds or
background noise which makes it difficult to distinguish individual or isolated words; speakers share the
reality and context, which facilitates mutual understanding, non-verbal communication add information;
speakers use the oral medium to express their own feelings, thoughts and ideas.

➢ Writing: uses graphic substance in the form of marks on a surface; writers have time for correction and
thinking; there is no direct influence from an interlocutor, writers must be precise in the way ideas are
expressed and the order, clear and coherence productions.

Holtgraves (2002) offers a complete inventory of what he calls MODE FEATURES OF SPEECH AND WRITING, in
relation to the spoken and written mode of communication.

He proposed the following features in spoken mode of communication

With respect to the written mode of communication, he proposed the following features:
➢ Grammatical features such as full phrases with little abbreviation and less ellipsis, long complex clauses, verbs in
the passive voice.
➢ Lexical features such as high lexical density, complex and abstract vocabulary, synonyms, words of Latin and
Greek origin.
➢ Discourse features such as explicit textual organisation and explanation of ideas, few markers of interpersonal
discourse.

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

After having analyzed the second part of this topic, SPOKEN AND WRITTEN LANGUAGE, I will deal with the Third
and last part of this topic, THE COMMUNICATION THEORY. First, I will provide a Definition of Communication, then
with the Ways in which communication occurs, also the processes which communication entails and finally the
key factors affecting any communicative interaction.
The concept of communication has evolved over time and I will address its historical outline, its landmarks in
history.
1. COMMUNICATION was defined as the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common
system of symbols. (Webster, 1983).
2. In the 1920s, an influence of communication technology attracted attention and many specialists attempted to
isolate communication as an independent field of study.
3. In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan points of view associated many contemporary psychological and sociological
phenomena with the media employed in modern culture. McLuhan’s idea was “the medium is the message”.
4. By the late twentieth and the early twenty-first centuries the main focus of interest in communication seems to
be the following:
✓ Persuasive communication: advertisements, debates, political speech…
✓ Interpersonal communication: as mediators of information (e.g. talk shows)
✓ Mass communication industries and perception of different kinds of communications.
✓ Internet. This encapsulates all type of communication: newspapers, chats, blogs…

After having discussed the definition of communication, dealing with the ways in which communication occurs
and the processes it entails, we should point out the MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF COMMUNICATION developed
by Shannon in the late 1940s.

What is important for us, as language teachers, is that the components he noticed in communication systems can
be related to communicative situations in the classroom. These components are:
Sender or encoder: the person who is speaking
Receiver or decoder: the person who is listening
Message: what is said
Channel: the air and the airwaves
Code: in which form
Context: situation sender and receiver share
Encoding: message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols
Decoding: the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that a person can
understand
Conventions: social rules or behaviors.

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

After having presented this model related to the communication theory, I will set the intended effects of our
communicative interaction; that is, an overview of SPEECH ACTS and the SOCIAL CONTEXT.

The British philosopher Austin (1962) was the first to draw attention to the functions performed by utterances as
part of interpersonal communication (effects of our communicative interaction):
➢ Constative. It is an utterance which asserts something that is either true or false.
➢ Performative. It is an utterance that performs an act.

In addition to this, Austin highlighted that any utterance involves the simultaneous performance of different act
(social context):
➢ Locutionary acts: it refers to the raw material of speech, that is to say, the act of producing phonemes; the act
of saying something meaningful. (The message itself)
➢ Ilocutionary acts: is the use of a sentence to perform a task, from the point of view of the speaker. With the
word “fire”, someone wants to warn. (The intention)
➢ Perlocutionary acts: is the result or effect that is produced by means of saying something, the effect the
utterance has on the hearer. (With the word “fire”, the effect is that the person stands up and rushes out).

Austin’s idea was to distinguish in each speech act, these three forces. However, utterances are much more
complex and Searle (1969) realized that utterances could have several illocutionary forces, establishing the
following classification:
➢ Directives: an attempt to get the hearer to perform some future action, such as ordering, questioning…
Assertives: an attempt to represent an actual state of affairs. They refer to the reality and prototypes are
informing, concluding…
➢ Commisives: an attempt to commit the speaker to a future course of action: promising, guaranteeing…
➢ Expressives: count as an attempt to express a psychological state. Prototypes include thanking, greeting,
apologizing…
➢ Declaratives: an attempt to bring about a change in the world outside. E.g. declaring war, performing a
marriage…

With regard to the context of situation (real word, elements from outside that influence communication), Halliday
(1982) set three main components:
➢ FIELD OF DISCOURSE: refers to the communicative situation, the nature of what is happening, the events that
take place
➢ TENOR OF DISCOURSE: refers to the nature of the participants, their statuses, roles and relationship.
➢ MODE OF DISCOURSE: refers to the type of language that is being used (from more formal to informal):
persuasive texts, expository, didactic…

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 Topic 1. Language as Communication: Oral and Written Language. Factors that define a Communicative
Situation: Transmitter, Receiver, Functions and Context.

In order to develop this topic, the following bibliography has been used:
- Austin, J.L.: How to do things with words. Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1962.
- Crystal, D.: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. C.U.P. Cambridge, 1987.
- Halliday, M.A.K.: Functional Grammar. Arnold. London, 1982.
- Holtgraves, T.M.: Language as Social Action. Social Psychology and Language Use. Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates. London, 2002.
- Searle, J.R.: Speech Acts: An essay in the Philosophy of language. Cambridge, 1969.

To sum up, I have explained language as communication. I have offered some definitions and the main properties
and functions of language. Then, I have introduced the concept of Communicative Competence. Second, I have
developed spoken and written language: historical attitudes towards spoken and written language and the main
characteristics and differences between writing and speech. Third, I have examined the different factors that define
a Communicative Situation. I have defined the Communication Theory: the main ways in which communication
occurs, the processes it entails and the key factors affecting any communicative interaction.

What I have basically done is to explain the importance of this topic in Foreign Language Teaching. But, as
teachers, it’s necessary to bear in mind the perspective of the Organic Law for Improving the Quality of Education
8/2013 December 9th, its Royal Decree 126/2014 February 28th that establishes the Minimum Teaching
Requirements for Primary Education nationwide and Decree 89/2014 that develops the curriculum in Madrid
Autonomous Community.

The main goal of teaching English in Primary Education is the development of our students’ Communicative
Competence, through the four basic skills related to the foreign language (listening, speaking, reading and
writing).

As teachers, we have to improve our students’ capacity or ability to carry out tasks or face situations, called
Competence. They are seven: 1st - Linguistic competence; 2nd - Mathematical, Science and Technology
competence; 3rd -Digital competence; 4th -Learning to Learn competence; 5th -Social and Civic competence; 6th -
Personal initiative and Entrepreneurial Spirit competence; and 7th –Cultural Awareness and Expression
competence.

Working on these capacities we encourage the full development of students’ personality, and facilitate their
integration as citizens in a world where international communication is increasing. That is why learning a foreign
language in Primary Education is a necessity in our society.