Second Language Communication Strategies: Definitions, Taxonomies, Data Elicitation Methodology and Teachability Issues. A Review Article.

This paper examines trends in second language communication strategies (CSs), explaining that when language learners concentrate on form or accuracy, they encounter problems, and when they recognize the mismatch between their linguistic resources and communicative intentions, they try to solve these problems using CSs (e.g., appeals for help, literal translation, circumlocution, approximation, and coinage). The paper presents an historical overview of CS research, definitions of CSs offered, and the various taxonomies proposed in the literature, which include the following: Varadi's taxonomy, Tarone's taxonomy, Bialystok's taxonomy, Faerch and Kasper's taxonomy, Corder's taxonomy, the Nijmegan Group taxonomy, Dornyei and Scott's taxonomy, and the author's taxonomy, which was based on a pilot study conducted to assess the suitability of tasks for eliciting strategic behavior and the quality of the data collection procedures. The paper also discusses data elicitation methods and data analysis procedures, and it highlights the major problems with existing taxonomies and their classification of CSs into different categories. After looking at the teachability of CSs, the paper concludes that research into CSs has made an important contribution to second language learning, and this research has made much progress during the decades since 1972, when the term "strategies of second language communication" was introduced. (Contains 71 bibliographic references.) (SM)