Competence versus Performance Within a Practical Work

Language is a social phenomenon used to satisfy communicative needs . Since people use language in any social interaction as a means of communication ,language, then, has a great role in any social interaction exchange ideas , attitudes and feelings in term of meaning . Meaning can be categorized into different levels and types according to the ideas or the attitudes it conveys . Accordingly , the present study seeks to find the correlation between the two concepts (competence and performance) expressed in linguistic interactions . It discusses the problematic area relative to how linguistic knowledge conveys these two concepts , and how they contribute to overall communicative values of the verbal interaction . The study tackles some problems that arise in the process of verbal interaction. It explores the relation between competence and performance , which may often be blurred. The framework of this research is systematically embodied in five chapters. First of all , chapter one covers the problem, aim of the study ,hypothesis, limits of the study, procedures and value of the study. Chapter two offers an over view of a theoretical background of the traditional ,structural and transformational view points for the two concepts (competence and performance). Chapter three talks about the interpretations of Chomsky`s competence and performance distinction and the analogy between Chomsky`s works and other linguists , whereas chapter four conducts the analysis of the two concepts (competence and performance) distinction within the Transformational Generative Grammar . Transformationalists hope to specify a comprehensive generative grammar that offers a logical and complete explanation for the linguistic knowledge . Finally , chapter five presents an empirical study for the researcher to analyze the student`s competence and performance within a test . The results revealed that the sample subjects have many errors which the researcher classified into Semantic and Syntactic errors . Syntactic errors formed the largest percentage of the total number of errors . This investigation has revealed that there is a shortage in the knowledge of language or lack of competence for our students . In the light of the obtained results , some conclusions are drawn , number of recommendations are made and several suggestions for further researches are presented.