ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Communicative competence

Communicative competence means being able to communicate effectively with others. Just like when you learn to talk, you need to know the right words to say, how to say them, and what the other person means when they talk to you. It's like playing a game where you need to understand the rules and know what moves to make to win.

When we speak, we use language to convey our thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Sometimes we need to use different words, tone of voice, or body language depending on who we are talking to and what we want to say. This is called being adaptable and means that we can adjust our responses to suit different situations.

We also need to listen carefully to what others say to us and respond appropriately. This involves paying attention to their words, tone of voice, and nonverbal cues like facial expressions. By doing this, we can understand their messages and respond in a way that makes sense.

Finally, communicative competence also means being able to use language to achieve our goals. For example, we may want to persuade someone to do something, or negotiate a compromise. To do this, we need to be clear, concise, and convincing in our messages.

So, communicative competence is about using language effectively to communicate, understand, and achieve our goals. It's an important skill that we use every day, whether we're talking to our family, friends, or strangers.