What is discourse competence (textual)?

Discourse competence is used to refer to two related, but distinct abilities. Textual discourse competence refers to the ability to understand and construct monologues or written texts of different genres, such as narratives, procedural texts, expository texts, persuasive (hortatory) texts, descriptions and others. These discourse genres have different characteristics, but in each genre there are some elements that help make the text coherent, and other elements which are used to make important points distinctive or prominent.

Learning a language involves learning how to relate these different types of discourse in such a way that hearers or readers can understand what is going on and see what is important. Likewise it involves being able to relate information in a way that is coherent to the readers and hearers.

Consider the following short discourse in English:

Once upon a time there was an old woman named Mother Hubbard, who had a dearly-loved dog named Bowser. Mother Hubbard was very poor and didn't always have enough food for herself and her pet.

One day Bowser came running up and barked hopefully to show his mistress how hungry he was. Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor doggie a bone, because she felt sorry for him. But when she got to the cupboard it was bare, and so poor Bowser went hungry.

This story starts with the phrase Once upon a time, which tells us that it is a fairy tale. The first paragraph goes on to introduce the two characters: Mother Hubbard and Bowser. It also tells us the background information we need to know about Mother Hubbard. Even though this is such a short story we need to keep track of the two participants and the props: the cupboard and the bone. Note the words used to refer to Mother Hubbard: an old woman, herself, his mistress, she and those used to refer to Bowser: a dearly-loved dog, her pet, her poor doggie, him, poor Bowser.

The second paragraph starts with the words One day, which introduce an event we expect to be important. (In fact, it is the only episode in our story!) This episode has three main events:

• Bowser ran up and barked hopefully
• Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard
• The cupboard was bare

There is also some further information in subordinate clauses, which are linked to the main clauses by words that show the relationship between them:

• to show his mistress how hungry he was tells us the purpose for which Bowser barked.
• because she felt sorry for him tells us the reason why Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard.
• to get her poor doggie a bone tells us the purpose of going to the cupboard.
• and so poor Bowser went hungry tells us the result of the cupboard being bare.

The words But when she got there introduce the climax of the story: She expected the bone to be there, but it wasn't so poor Bowser went hungry.

So even in a short story such as this, we can identify cohesive and prominence elements in an English narrative text. Children learn intuitively as they are learning English, but adult learners may be helped by conscious attention to such elements.

• Concept module: discourse competence (textual)
• 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

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