Procedural Knowledge As a Component of Foreign Language Learners' Communicative Competence

Abstract

In this paper we would like to highlight one component of foreign language (FL) learners' communicative competence which has so far received little attention in descriptions of communicative competence: what we shall refer to as (but cf. Widdowson 1979a,b, Breen/Candlin 1980, Canale/Swain 1980, FÕrch/Kasper 1980, 1983a, Knapp 1980, Sharwood Smith 1986). Both our description of the subcomponents of this type of communicative knowledge as well as its relationship to other components of communicative competence are higly tentative and open to discussion. We procedural knowledge shall first sketch the outline of a model of communicative competence and characterize the component of procedural knowledge as an integral part of this. Following this, we consider some of the characteristic features of communication in a traditionally taught foreign language class of Danish learners of English with a special view to the function of procedural knowledge