“交际能力”一词既指语言的隐性知识，也指有效使用语言的能力。它也被称为沟通能力，是社会接受的关键。

交际能力的概念（1972年由语言学家戴尔·海姆斯创造的一个术语）源于对诺姆·乔姆斯基提出的语言能力概念的抵制。大多数学者认为语言能力是交际能力的一部分。

实例和意见

"Why have so many scholars, from so many fields, studied communicative competence within so many relational, institutional, and cultural contexts? Our hunch is that scholars, as well as the contemporary Western societies in which most live and work, widely accept the following tacit beliefs: (a) within any situation, not all things that can be said and done are equally competent; (b) success in personal and professional relationships depends, in no small part, on communicative competence; and (c) most people display incompetence in at least a few situations, and a smaller number are judged incompetent across many situations." (Wilson and Sabee) "By far the most important development in TESOL has been the emphasis on a communicative approach in language teaching (Coste, 1976; Roulet, 1972; Widdowson, 1978). The one thing that everyone is certain about is the necessity to use language for communicative purposes in the classroom. Consequently, the concern for teaching linguistic competence has widened to include communicative competence, the socially appropriate use of language, and the methods reflect this shift from form to function." (Paulston)

能力赞美诗

"We have then to account for the fact that a normal child acquires knowledge of sentences not only as grammatical, but also as appropriate. He or she acquires competence as to when to speak, when not, and as to what to talk about with whom, when, where, in what manner. In short, a child becomes able to accomplish a repertoire of speech acts, to take part in speech events, and to evaluate their accomplishment by others. This competence, moreover, is integral with attitudes, values, and motivations concerning language, its features and uses, and integral with competence for, and attitudes toward, the interrelation of language with the other code of communicative conduct."(Hymes)

卡纳尔和斯温的交际能力模型

在《第二语言教学和测试交际法的理论基础》（应用语言学，1980年）中，Michael Canale和Merrill Swain确定了交际能力的四个组成部分：

(i) Grammatical competence includes knowledge of phonology, orthography, vocabulary, word formation and sentence formation. (ii) Sociolinguistic competence includes knowledge of sociocultural rules of use. It is concerned with the learners' ability to handle for example settings, topics and communicative functions in different sociolinguistic contexts. In addition, it deals with the use of appropriate grammatical forms for different communicative functions in different sociolinguistic contexts. (iii) Discourse competence is related to the learners' mastery of understanding and producing texts in the modes of listening, speaking, reading and writing. It deals with cohesion and coherence in different types of texts. (iv) Strategic competence refers to compensatory strategies in case of grammatical or sociolinguistic or discourse difficulties, such as the use of reference sources, grammatical and lexical paraphrase, requests for repetition, clarification, slower speech, or problems in addressing strangers when unsure of their social status or in finding the right cohesion devices. It is also concerned with such performance factors as coping with the nuisance of background noise or using gap fillers. (Peterwagner)

资源和进一步阅读

• 卡纳尔、迈克尔和梅里尔·斯温。“第二语言教学和测试交际法的理论基础”，《应用语言学》，1980年3月1日，第一期，第1-47页，doi:10.1093/applin/I.1.1。
• 乔姆斯基，诺姆。句法理论的几个方面。麻省理工学院，1965年。
• 语言与社会生活互动的模式〉，《社会语言学方向：交流的民族志》，约翰·J·甘佩兹和戴尔·海姆斯编辑，威利·布莱克威尔，1991年，第35-71页。
• 《社会语言学：选读》，约翰·伯纳德·普莱德和珍妮特·霍姆斯编辑，企鹅出版社，1985年，第269-293页。
• 保尔斯顿，克里斯蒂娜·布拉特。语言学与交际能力：ESL的主题。多语文事项，1992年。
• 彼得瓦格纳，莱因霍尔德。交际能力有什么问题？：一项旨在鼓励英语教师评估其教学基础的分析。利特·维朗，2005年。
• 编辑Rickheit、Gert和Hans Strohner。交际能力手册：应用语言学手册。德格鲁伊特，2010年。
• 威尔逊、史蒂文R.和克里斯蒂娜M.萨比。“将交际能力解释为一个理论术语”，《交际和社会互动技能手册》，约翰·O·格林和布兰特·雷尼·伯莱森编辑，劳伦斯·厄尔鲍姆协会，2003年，第3-50页。