Communication Strategies (adapted from Dornyei 1995)

Avoidance Strategies

1. Message abandonment : Leaving a message unfinished because of language

difficulties
2. Topic avoidance : Avoiding topic areas or concepts that pose language
difficulties.

Compensatory strategies

3. Circumlocution : Describing or exemplifying the target object of action

( example: the thing you open bottles with for
corkscrew)

4. Approximation : Using an alternative term which expresses the meaning

of the target lexical item as closely as possible
(example: ship for sailboat)

5. Word coinage : Creating a nonexisting L2 word based on a supposed

rule (example: vegetarianist for vegetarian)

6. Prefabricated patterns : Using memorized stock phrases, usually for “survival”

purposes (example: Where is the …… or Comment
allez-vous), where the sentences are not known to the
learner)

7. Nonlinguistic signals : Mime, gesture, facial expression, or sound imitation.

Literal translation: Translating literally a lexical item,
idiom, compound word, or structure from L1 to L2

8. Code-switching : Using a L1 word with L1 pronunciation or a L3 word

with L3 pronunciation while speaking in L2.

8. Appeal for help : Asking for aid from the interlocutor either directly
(example: What do you call ……..?) or indirectly
(example: rising intonation, pause, eye contact,
puzzled expression)
Avoidance Strategies

1. Lexical avoidance
Second language learners avoid a certain lexical item when they don’t know the
word.

Example
Mr A: I lost my road
Mr B: You lost your road?
Mr A: Uh, I lost. I lost. I got lost

2. Message abandonment
The learner begins to talk about a concept but is unable to continue and stops
in mid-utterance.

Example
A learner says “he took the wrong way in mm…” (He/she does not continue
his/her utterance).

3. Topic avoidance
The learner simply tries not to talk about concepts for which the TL item or
structure is not known. A whole type of conversation (say, talking about what
happened yesterday if the past tense is unfamiliar) might be avoided entirely.
Compensatory Strategies

1. Prefabricated patterns
Prefabricated patterns are memorized chunk of language which is often found
in pocket bilingual dictionary such as “How are you?" or "Where is your
hotel?". A learner may use these without any knowledge at all of their internal
structure. These are partly "creative" and partly memorized wholes; they
consist of sentence frames with an open "slot" for a word or a phrase, such as
"That's a _____" (pen, knife, banana),

2. Direct appeal
Learners may, if stuck for a particular word or phrase, directly ask a native
speaker or the teacher for the form (“how do you say ……”). Or they might
venture a possible guess and then ask for verification from the native speaker
of the correctness of the attempt.

3. Code switching
It is a term in linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety
in conversation. Bilinguals, who can speak at least two languages, have the
ability to use elements of both languages. Code-switching can occur between
sentences or within a single sentence. Sometimes the learner slips in just a
word or two, in the hope that the hearer will get the gist of what is being
communicated. Others defined it as 'The alternative use of two languages.'

Example
Ali: No, ask from Fendi. Takkan tak ada?
Spanish/English: Have aqua please.