Abstract

The paper goes into the notion of "multi-competence" thought out by Vivian J. Cook, now a professor emeritus of applied linguistics in New Castle University. This notion, of which the definition has slightly been revised by Cook with frequency in the course of time, describes the overall system in the mind of a speaker or a community able to use more than one language, and therefore it involves both the knowledge an individual or a community have of two or more languages and the use an individual or a community make of them. As regards language acquisition, the difference is properly examined between the multicompetence approach and the SLA viewpoint. The fall-out effects of multicompetence on foreign language teaching are also examined in detail. Finally, the notion of multi-competence is convincingly said to have percolated through the ideas going around the debate on the scientific study of language during the 20th century.