TOWARD A PEDAGOGICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PRAGMATIC COMPETENCE OF

An approach to teaching second language learners the pragmatic aspects of communicative competence is discussed. The approach uses analysis of verbal interaction to explain four areas of skill and knowledge related to communicative competence: grammatical competence; sociolinguistic competence; discourse competence; and strategic competence. It goes beyond the functional approach by expanding the student's perspective to complete, real interactions. The first section of the discussion explains the rationale behind such qualitative analysis. The second section outlinei; three areas of communicative competence: sociolinguistic, textual. anci strategic. Subsequentiy, sections are devoted to more thorough discusrion of those three areas and their use in analyzing interactional requirements and verbal strategies to cope with them. Examples are drawn from an actual conversation (text appended) between a professor and a doctoral student in an American university. (MSE) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************k*************************