Recommended to defense” Republicаn Scientific-prаcticаl Center of developing the innovаtionаl methods for teаching foreign lаnguаges

1.1.5. Homework Tаsk Five

Pleаse refer to the lesson you chose for Homework Tаsk One. In а one-pаge report or less, pleаse do the following: First, explаin briefly how you understаnd strаtegic competence (i.e., whаt does strаtegic competence meаn to you); Second, explаin how you cаn include strаtegic competence in the lesson for Homework Tаsk One.

Strategic competence was defined by Canale and Swain (1980: 30) as ‘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’. In other words, strategic competence refers to the ability to get one’s meaning across successfully to communicative partners, especially when problems arise in the communication process. Strategic competence is relevant to both L1 and L2, since communication breakdowns occur and must be overcome not only in a foreign language but in one’s mother tongue as well. However, since strategic competence involves strategies to be used when communication is difficult, it is of crucial importance for foreign language learners. A lack of strategic competence may account for situations when students with a firm knowledge of grammar and a wide range of vocabulary get stuck and are unable to carry out their communicative intent. At oral language exams such students may even fail, and their teachers often cannot comprehend how that could happen to their ‘best students’. On the other hand, there are learners who can communicate successfully with only one hundred words-they rely almost entirely on their strategic competence.

In an attempt to fill the gap, the following practical ideas for strategy training are all aimed at enhancing some aspects of message adjustment and resource expansion skills. They have all worked with our learners. We hope that they will inspire teachers to include strategy training in their lessons, as well as to design further techniques along these lines.

The knowledge and confident use of fillers are a crucial part of learners’ strategic competence, since these invaluable delaying or hesitation devices can be used to carry on the conversation at times of difficulty, when language learners would otherwise end up feeling more and more desperate and would typically grind to a halt. Examples of fillers range from very short structures (well; I mean; actually; you know), to what are almost phrases (as a matter of fact; to be quite honest; now let me think; I’ll tell you what; I see what you mean; etc.). A good way of presenting fillers is by playing unedited authentic recordings for students to note down all the variations of what they consider to be fillers. They may also write down the bare bones of the information they hear on tape without the fillers. With carefully chosen material, very often five or six spoken interchanges can be condensed to one or two lines of relevant information.