FACULTAD DE LENGUAS – UNCo

DIDACTICA ESPECIAL Y RESIDENCIA II

HOMEWORK GUIDE Nº 12

We’re starting the third week of this second term

and we’re successfully covering the topics of unit
2. So far we’ve dealt with the general
definitions and notions regarding
communicative competence and we’ve gone
deeper into DISCOURSE COMPETENCE. Today we’re going to
explore strategic competence so that you’re better prepared to
transfer different notions to the activities and plans you are
designing or will need to design in the future.

Strategic competence is another piece of the communicative competence puzzle. As you may remember,
each competence is a separate module that works in permanent coordination with the other systems of knowledge
and skill that enable users of any language to communicate successfully.

As I have already anticipated in the first video of this unit, strategic competence is an area of knowledge and skill
that deals with the mastery of verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be used for two main
reasons:

A) To compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting conditions in actual

communication (momentary inability to recall an idea or grammatical form), or to insufficient competence in one
or more of the other areas of communicative competence.
B) To enhance the effectiveness of communication (e.g. using deliberately slow and soft speech for
rhetorical effect).

The development of strategic competence, then, implies the use of COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES.
When are we in the presence of this type of strategies? Well, Tarone (1983) proposed the following criteria to
characterize a communication strategy:

1. A speaker desires to communicate a meaning “X” to a listener.

2. The speaker believes the linguistic or sociolinguistic strategies desired to
communicate that meaning are unavailable or are not shared with the listener.
3. The speaker chooses to:
a. Avoid – not attempt to communicate meaning “X”, or
b. Attempt alternate means to communicate meaning “X”.
4. The speaker stops trying alternatives when it seems clear to him/her that there is shared meaning.

How does this work when we

communicate…? Let’s see…
 Communicative Communicative
Planning/Execution
Goal goal reached

Change of Developing an
GOAL PROBLEM alternative plan

AVOIDANCE AVOIDANCE ACHIEVEMENT ACHIEVEMENT

STRATEGY BEHAVIOUR BEHAVIOUR STRATEGY

Figure 1. Effect of reduction and achievement strategies (Faerch and Kasper 1983)

Faerch and Kasper (1983) classify communication strategies according to the different ways in which learners might
behave when faced with problems in communication:

a. Avoidance behaviour: Trying to do away with the problem, normally by changing the communicative
goal.
b. Achievement behaviour: Attempting to tackle the problem directly by developing an alternative plan.

The authors say that on the basis of these two different approaches to problem-solving two big types of strategies
can be distinguished:

a. Reduction strategies, governed by avoidance behaviour

b. Achievement strategies, governed by achievement behaviour.

Examples of reduction strategies:

 Topic avoidance: The learner simply tries not to talk about concepts for which
the target language item or structure is not known.

 Message abandonment: The learner begins to talk about a concept but is

unable to continue and stops in mid-utterance.

Examples of achievement strategies:

 Paraphrase

1. Approximation: use of a single target language vocabulary item or structure,

which the learner knows is not correct, but which shares enough
communicative features in common with the desired item to satisfy the
speaker (e.g. ‘pipe’ for ‘water pipe’).

2. Word coinage: the learner makes up a new word in order to communicate a desired concept (e.g. ‘air ball’ for
‘balloon’).

3. Circumlocution: the learner describes the characteristics or elements of the object or action instead of using the
appropriate target language item.

 Borrowing

1. Literal translation: The learner translates word for word from the native language into the target language.

2. Language switch: The learner uses the native language term without bothering to translate.

3. Appeal for assistance: The learner asks for the correct term.

4. Mime: The learner uses non-verbal strategies in place of a lexical item or action (e.g. clapping one’s hands to
illustrate ‘applause’).

 Restructuring

It is used whenever the learner realizes that he cannot complete a local plan which he has already began producing
and develops an alternative local plan which enables him to communicate his intended message without reduction.

E.g. “My parents has…I have…er…four elder sisters.”

In this case the learner starts to say something about his parents, probably that they have five children, but cannot
do this, so he restructures his utterance and starts speaking about himself. This allows him to keep the original
intended meaning.

Although some strategies such as paraphrase are universal, Canale claims that learners must be shown how such a
strategy can be implemented in the L2. Learners must be encouraged to use communication strategies and must be
given the opportunity to use them.

TASK:
1) Choose an activity from a textbook (if it is for teenagers, better!) whose aim is to develop the speaking skill
but does not teach any communication strategy
2) Adapt the activity so that it includes the development of a strategy from any of the three groups of
achievement strategies.
3) Describe how you would carry out that activity in a lesson (as if the description was part of a lesson plan)
4) Post the task in the forum at Pedco.