The ability to use communication strategies constitutes strategic competence, which is
a component of communicative competence (Canale and Swain, 1980). Strategic
competence is defined as “the verbal and non verbal communication strategies that
may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to
performance variables or to insufficient competence” (Canale and Swain, 1980, p.
30).
A communication strategy is defined as “potentially conscious plans for solving
what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular
communicative goal” (Faerch and Kasper, 1983, p. 36). The main distinguishing
criteria in this definition are problem-orientedness and consciousness. Faerch and
Kasper contend that L2 learners want to express something through the second
language but encounter problems as a result of their limited interlanguage. They
therefore resort to communication strategies, which are solutions to the
communication problems encountered. For example if a speaker wants to
communicate ‘hairdresser’, but does not have this vocabulary in his interlanguage, he
may circumlocute ‘one’s who who erm could cut people’s hair’ to get the message
across to his interlocutor.
A distinguishing feature in the use of a communication strategy is the existence of a
linguistic problem. The speaker perceives that there is a problem that may interrupt
the achievement of his communicative goal. Often the problem arises as a result of his
limited linguistic system relative to a given communicative goal. He may lack the
linguistic resources needed, be uncertain about the correctness of rules belonging to
his interlanguage system, or encounter fluency problems with the realization of
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specific rules. He therefore uses communication strategies, which are solutions to the
problem, in order to achieve his goal.