交际能力(communicative competence)是以往数年间在美国日益流行的语言学习目标,它如同天气那样,已成为漫无尽头的议题.这个问题竟弄成这样:人人绕它议论,大伙绕它撰文,可用的结果却几乎一无所有,在英语作为外语教的国家里,尤其如此. 关于交际能力目标,有些方面往往会引起误解,令人疑虑.请允许我简要地谈谈这些方面.在谈的时候,我向自己提出如下问题:这个目标为什么会引起思想混乱?交际能力为什 Communicative competence, the language learning goal that has gained popularity in the United States in the past few years, has become an endless issue just as the weather has done. This issue has been formulated in such a way that everyone talks about it, This is especially true in the countries where English is taught as a foreign language. Some aspects of communicative competence are often misleading and troubling. Allow me to briefly talk about these aspects. In my talk, I asked myself the following question: Why does this goal cause confusion?