Current conceptualizations of the construct of "communication competence" are examined in this paper and are found to be problematic. The paper argues that "communication competence" must be distinguished from "communication performance" and sees neither as a reliable predictor of the other. The paper suggests that both research and pedagogy must make clear distinctions among the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor elements of communication learning if they are to produce improvements in either competence or performance. (Author/FL)