The Influence of Task‐ and Proficiency‐Related Factors on the Use of Compensatory Strategies: A Quantitative Analysis

The study described in this paper was set up to investigate the effect of foreign language learners' proficiency level on compensatory strategies used by these learners to solve lexical problems. At the same time, the effect of task‐related factors on compensatory strategies was examined. The study involved three groups of Dutch learners of English at three different proficiency levels. The subjects were tested on three different tasks: a picture naming/description task, a story retell task, and an oral interview with a native speaker of English. It appeared that “proficiency level” is inversely related to the number of compensatory strategies used by the subjects: the most advanced subjects used fewer compensatory strategies than did the least proficient ones. Contrary to our expectations, however, the type of compensatory strategy chosen by the subjects was not to any large extent related to their proficiency level. Rather, the data indicate that task‐related factors play a large role in this respect. Whereas the subjects predominantly used analytic strategies in the picture naming/description task, they frequently resorted to holistic strategies and transfer strategies in the story retell task and the oral interview. To explain these differences it is suggested that in selecting compensatory strategies the subjects observed general conversational principles.