What is phonological competence?

What is phonological competence?

Definition
	Phonological competence is the ability to recognize and produce the distinctive meaningful sounds of a language, including:
	consonants vowels tone patterns intonation patterns rhythm patterns stress patterns any other suprasegmental features that carry meaning
	Related to phonological competence is orthographic competence, or the ability to decipher and write the writing system of a language.

Example
	In Korean there are three kinds of velar stops: aspirated, fortis and lenis. It is important to be able to distinguish these sounds, because there are a number of different words that are pronounced the same, except for the difference in these stops. It is also important to be able to pronounce these consonants correctly so that Korean speakers can tell which word the language learner means.

Context for this page:

Concept module: phonological competence
In overview module: Linguistic aspects of communicative competence
In overview module: Aspects of communicative competence
In overview module: Introduction to guidelines for a language and cult...
In modular book: Guidelines for a Language and Culture Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
In document collection: Other Resources
In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 15 September 1998

© 1999 SIL International