Definition of Performance

Chomsky (1965) quoted in Ellis (1986: 6) states that performance consists of the comprehension and production of language. Krashen (1981: 2) states that performance consists of the acquired system, learned system, and utterance of language production. Additionally, Dulay, Burt, & Krashen (1982: 139) states that performance consists of conversation (e.g. learner speech) or composition (e.g. learner writing) of language, moreover, they state that these parts of performance include grammatical morphemes, marking a semantic feature, regularizing rules, archiforms, random alternating, and word-order rules. In addition to that, Selinker (1969) quoted in Spolsky (1989: 32) says that, in the scope of second language acquisition, performance is the speaker’s attempt to produce a foreign form, i.e. both his errors and his non-errors. Moreover, he confirms that a performance can be seen in the behaviour of second language learners attempting to emulate the target language speaker’s norm or competence. Furthermore, Spolsky (1989: 46) himself says that performance consists of passive knowledge that is receptive skills such as understanding speech or written text and active knowledge that is productive skills such as speaking and writing.
Based on the opinions above the writer concluded that performance consists of the individual’s comprehension and production of language that consist of receptive skills such as understanding speech or written text and active knowledge that is productive skills such as conversation or speaking and writing or composition which include the language components.

References:
Ellis, Rod. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press. 1986.

Dulay, Heidi., Burt, Marina., and Krashen, Stephen. Language Two. New York: Oxford University Press. 1982.

Krashen, Stephen D. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. New York: Pergamon Press. 1981.

Spolsky, Bernard. Conditions for Second Language Learning. New York. Oxford University Press. 1989.