Perspectives on communicative competence with special reference to initiation school curriculum terms/names

Abstract

TshivenQa initiation 'school' language is expressed through everyday terms/names which although coded <:~nd closed-up, are able to distinguish between the various levels or stages of this socio·cultural and educational development. The terms/names refer to traditional games and ritu<lls that are performed at royal courts and enclosures. Somehow some European scholars perceive them as but mere entertainment and backward rituals. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how communicative competence in the TshivenQa initiation school curriculum names is better explicable through the ethnography of communication. This theory will be linked with grammaticalisation through which the coded names are parsed or opened·up and built up in terms of grammatical competence to further illustrate that, in addition to their informative and educative fu11ctions in children's curriculum development from early childhood to adulthood in VhavenQa society, the terms/names are also characterised by communicative competence so that they can at all times be communicable.