Knowing a language

What do you think it means to know a language well and to use it successfully? The answer to this question depends on historical and cultural aspects, as well as perspective of the person who is being asked, you will not get the same answer if you ask it to an academic linguistic, a language learner or a language user, they will focus on developing just one aspect and the one which fits theme better, so according to the different features you find in the answers, you would start to identify if it is about accent or speaking like a native or with fancy and complex expressions, bur you would find that it is a combination of each of those features.

To understand the sense of this chapter, the text mentioned that in traditional grammar, translation assumed that knowing a language was to know how the rules and exceptions work. Still, not everyone who knows the rule is a good communicator, probably when he tries to communicate, he might use the wrong tone of his voice or the wrong gesture or might sound unfriendly when he wants to be polite, because he knows hoe the rule works, but not how the intention is addressed, and the reason would be the lack of languages knowledge in the essential function itself.

On the other hand, knowing the rule is indeed a key in the learning process, still, it does not guarantee success in communications, I would provide you an example to explain my point, you don't learn to drive by going straight on the street and not having any isolated command before, you need the operation, the explanation of what to do and how to do it.

To continue, the text also moved on to Chomsky's idea he said that the human capacity of language is not a product of general intelligence but is a genetic feature of human beings according to the child’s acquisition, what mean that the newborns brain already contains information about universal grammar, and it happens without studying the grammar, it would be natural, so the child would certainly speak thanks to the linguistic competence.

The main idea of this chapter is to share Hymes’ thought, he said that a person who only get the linguistic competence, would not be able to communicate, so he suggested for types of knowledge, first the possibility, which means that the language user would produce headlines that are Grammarly possible and correct. Second, the intention is feasible, despite grammar making it possible to expand a phrase to make it more specific, so much information could make you lose the main idea or the sense in the sentence.

Finally, he added appropriateness, meaning that according to social context it must be appropriate in terms of culture, social beliefs, experiences and social structured, and the last component was attested ness where he used some examples like the common order of some words, for example “fish and fries” and how it sounds more natural than saying “fries and fish”, ending with the four components in the communicative competence.