The goal of communicative competence as an application of linguistic principles involves three processes: (1) reduction, or the relationshiip between the term "communication" in its everyday sense and pedagogically useful models of communication; (2) transposition, or the relationship between language theory and language learning; and (3) deduction, or determining the curricular implications of judgements about the goals, content, organization and control of learning. Common and confused understandings of concepts comprised by the term "communication" must, through reduction, be replaced with clear concept models which enhance the effectiveness of teaching by representing the psychological realities behind modes of communication. Transposition emphasizes the pedagogically applicable side of language theories at the expense of the "inner relevance" to linguists of the theories. These two processes can be applied to deduction, which demands the abandonment of easy catch phrases in favor of the determination of specific learning goals based on an awareness of the real psychological processes of second language learning. (JB)