Researching L2 Strategic Competence - Conceptualization, Mechanism, and Teachability

摘要

Strategic competence as a crucial component in the construct of communicative competence has been widely recognized. Previous studies mostly focused on distinguishing, defining and advancing CS taxonomies. However, few studies were concerned with the underlying approaches to the defining of CS and with the proper mechanism of how strategic competence operates. This paper firstly revisited the two primary approaches to CS conceptualization, i.e. the process oriented linguistic approach and the product oriented cognitive psychological approach. Then, the study continued to analyze the operating mechanism, i.e. psycholinguistic model of speech production (Faerch & Kasper, 1980, 1983a), in which planning phase is differentiated from execution phase. Finally, the study lent support to the clarification of the controversial question that the CS should be taught or not. As pointed out in the end, CS in L2 communication context supposedly should and could be taught by taking into such factors as Transfer of L1 skills, learners' motivation to communicate, etc.