Reconceptualising Communicative Competence for the Nigerian Multilingual Context: A Theoretical Contribution

Communicative competence, as theorized by Hymes, Canale and Swain, and subsequent frameworks in applied linguistics, was formulated primarily in reference to monolingual or bilingual communicative norms and does not adequately capture the communicative resources, practices, and competencies that characterize effective communication in a linguistically complex society like Nigeria. This dissertation reconceptualises communicative competence for the Nigerian multilingual context, making a substantial theoretical contribution to one of the central constructs of applied linguistics. The theoretical development programme begins with a comprehensive critical review of communicative competence frameworks from Hymes through to recent translanguaging competence and metrolingual approaches, systematically identifying the theoretical limitations of each model for the multilingual reality of Nigerian communication. An empirical programme then documents the communicative competencies actually deployed by successful communicators in four socially consequential domains: inter-ethnic commercial negotiation, multilingual healthcare consultation, cross-regional political persuasion, and multilingual academic mentoring. Competence documentation draws on conversation analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis applied to audio and video data from each domain. The reconstructed framework, termed Multilingual Communicative Competence, proposes five core competencies absent from or underspecified in existing frameworks: fluid repertoire management competence, cross-code pragmatic calibration, language accommodation asymmetry management, identity-performance through code selection, and metalinguistic commentary competence. Each competence is defined with reference to empirical examples from the Nigerian data and contrasted with its nearest analogue in existing frameworks. The framework is designed to be applicable to other highly multilingual contexts beyond Nigeria. Keywords: communicative competence, multilingualism, theoretical reconceptualisation, Nigerian context, applied linguistics.