Based on the framework of communicative competence suggested by Canale and
Swain (ibid.), Tarone and Yule (1989) extended strategic competence to include “the
ability to select an effective means of performing a communicative act…Thus,
strategic competence is gauged, not by degree of correctness (as with grammatical
competence) but rather by degree of success, or effectiveness” (p. 105). They
proposed two areas related to strategic competence: the learners’ skill in transmitting
messages successfully and comprehensibly to the listener or understanding the
information received, and the use of communication strategies by both speakers and
listeners to solve their problems when arise during the course of communication (p.
103). In this way, communication strategies are viewed as a focal point of strategic
competence since they help learners to cope with their communication problems.