What Are The Four Competency Steps Of Competent Communicators?

Competent communication encompasses a set of four crucial competencies, as outlined by the National Capital Language Resource Center. These competencies are linguistic competency, which involves a strong grasp of language; sociolinguistic competency, which focuses on understanding the social and cultural nuances of communication; discourse competency, which pertains to the effective structuring of conversations or written communication; and strategic competency, which involves the skill of using language strategically to achieve specific communication objectives. In essence, competent communication goes beyond mere language proficiency; it is the skillful and contextually appropriate use of language to successfully attain communication goals.

What constitutes communication competence involves various stages that progress from initial unawareness to a seamless, automatic ability. These stages encompass unconscious incompetence, where one lacks awareness of their shortcomings in communication, followed by conscious incompetence, where an individual becomes cognizant of their communication deficiencies. Moving forward, conscious competence signifies the stage where one actively works on improving their communication skills, and ultimately, unconscious competence denotes the mastery where effective communication becomes second nature. To enhance communication competence, individuals need to cultivate mindfulness in their communication approach and elevate their self-monitoring skills, enabling a comprehensive understanding and refinement of their communicative abilities.