An Investigation into the Requirement of Communicative Competence in the Usage of Slang

Abstract

Communicative competence is the ability of a speaker of a language to be able to use a language like a native speaker would use. It encompasses a language user’s knowledge of grammar, syntax, morphology, phonology etc and the usage of language in a social context. It includes grammatical competence, sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic aptitude on the part of a learner. A language user should understand the sociolinguistic context and be able to fix whenever there occurs a communication break. This is commonly related to the standard language. What about the informal aspect of any language? Can a learner be called truly competent in a language if he/she does not know the peculiarities of its informal side? This paper therefore looks at the need for communicative competence in the usage of slang, which is an informal variety of a language. Many notions related to both the concepts have been discussed in the paper.