Performance is the prize: Language competence and performance among AAC users

Abstract

The acquisition of language by children who are nonspeaking is associated with special concerns that are sometimes overlooked. A newer view of language competence and performance suggests that, rather than being simply a front for underlying language competence, language performance is what a person really knows about language. Under this view, what the person knows is actually different in different contexts, when different modalities are used for input and output, and when different levels of support are available from the environment. Implications are considered for assessing and fostering development in the domains of phonology, lexicon, syntax, morphology, speech acts, conversation, and discourse. The “domain model” is combined with Snow's (1991) “task model” of communicative competence, which encompasses the dimensions of audience, background, and message. The combined models may be used for designing systematic assessment and intervention activities to help children develop into competent, literate, mature communicators who can perform a variety of communicative tasks, with multiple partners, in variable contexts.

• language competence
• language development
• language performance
• lexicon
• literacy
• speech acts