TECNOSZUBIA 2018

English for Secondary Education. COMPETENCES UNDER THE CEFRL

The Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR), (Council of

Europe 2001), is a document that was created with the collaboration of linguists of
different European countries with the objective of unifying a set of guidelines for
teaching languages. CEFR establishes a model that includes the objectives, the
contents, the methodology and the assessment. These former elements are used by
teachers for drawing up their own unit of work.
Europe is a multicultural and multilingual place, therefore if we would like its
citizens to be able to communicate and move freely through any part of European
territory, it is necessary to set common and homogeneous learning guidelines. The
learning of a language does not limit it to the acquisition of any type of information
but does require appropriate knowledge of a set of competences. Basic competences are
the set of conceptual, procedural and attitudinal learning that students must develop
at the end of Compulsory Secondary Education to achieve their personal fulfilment,
exercise and active citizenship. Thus, basic competences incorporate themselves to
adult life satisfactorily as well as the development of a permanent learning throughout
the life.
The CEFR distinguishes between general competences, which include those
actions the students develop as a tool to complete a communicative activity and those
competences that are not related to language directly; and communicative language
competences, which are those actions, strictly linguistics, that students carry out in the
learning of a language.
The general compentences are the following:

Declarative Knowledge (savoir). This competence is related to human beings

knowledge according to the world, based on their experiences and academic
training. Also, this competence covers the knowledge related to students daily
life, their personal relationships, values and beliefs as well as the existing
connection between the mother tongue and the second language.

Skills and Know-how (savoir-faire). These include practical abilities (social,

professional, leisure) (pre-task (speaking skill)

Existential competence (savoir-tre). This is related to students personality,

their attitudes, motivations, values, beliefs

Ability to learn (savoir-apprendre). This is related to human beings capacity

to incorporate new experiences and knowledge together with what they have
already learnt.

2.1.1 Communicative language competence (CEFRL). CHAPTER 2.

Communicative language competence can be considered as comprising several components:

linguistic, sociolinguistic and pragmatic. Each of these components is postulated as
comprising, in particular, knowledge and skills and know-how.

Linguistic competences include lexical, phonological, syntactical knowledge and

TECNOSZUBIA 2018
English for Secondary Education. COMPETENCES UNDER THE CEFRL

skills and other dimensions of language as system, independently of the sociolinguistic value
of its variations and the pragmatic functions of its realisations. This component, considered here
from the point of view of a given individuals communicative language competence, relates
not only to the range and quality of knowledge (e.g. in terms of phonetic distinctions made or
the extent and precision of vocabulary) but also to cognitive organisation and the way this
knowledge is stored (e.g. the various associative networks in which the speaker places a lexical
item) and to its accessibility (activation, recall and availability). Knowledge may be conscious
and readily expressible or may not (e.g. once again in relation to mastery of a phonetic system).
Its organisation and accessibility will vary from one individual to another and vary also within
the same individual (e.g. for a plurilingual person depend- ing on the varieties inherent in his or
her plurilingual competence). It can also be held that the cognitive organisation of
vocabulary and the storing of expressions, etc. depend, amongst other things, on the
cultural features of the community or commu- nities in which the individual has been
socialised and where his or her learning has occurred.

Sociolinguistic competences refer to the sociocultural conditions of language use.

Through its sensitivity to social conventions (rules of politeness, norms governing rela- tions
between generations, sexes, classes and social groups, linguistic codication of certain
fundamental rituals in the functioning of a community), the sociolinguistic com- ponent strictly
affects all language communication between representatives of different cultures, even though
participants may often be unaware of its inuence.

Pragmatic competences are concerned with the functional use of linguistic resources
(production of language functions, speech acts), drawing on scenarios or scripts of inter- actional
exchanges. It also concerns the mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the identication
of text types and forms, irony, and parody. For this component even more than the linguistic
component, it is hardly necessary to stress the major impact of interactions and cultural
environments in which such abilities are constructed.
All the categories used here are intended to characterise areas and types of compe- tences
internalised by a social agent, i.e. internal representations, mechanisms and capacities, the
cognitive existence of which can be considered to account for observable behaviour and
performance. At the same time, any learning process will help to develop or transform these
same internal representations, mechanisms and capacities.
Each of these components will be examined in more detail in Chapter 5.of the CEFRL.