Communication strategies and face-to-face and online L3 spoken interaction tasks

When carrying out spoken interaction tasks, whether face-to-face or online, learners face considerable communicative challenges which prod them into responding strategically. This article compares the use of communicative strategies as two pairs of students of French and two pairs of students of German as additional languages carry out eight face-to-face and online spoken interaction tasks, the latter via videoconferencing, in order to examine the possible influence of modality, task typology, and language on communicative strategies used. Jigsaw and ranking tasks were recorded and transcribed using the CLAN programme, while the methodological approach applied was qualitative. Our data show that the jigsaw task elicited mostly the use of communication strategies with a view to clarification, while the ranking task tended toward strategies involving discourse reformulation. Furthermore, there appeared slight differences between students of French and students of German when resorting to compensatory strategies (searching, asking for help, code-switching). In all cases strategies were employed articulately forming complex communicative sequences. Thus, the results of our study indicate - with the exception of iconic gesturing utilised in mime strategy - modality does not significantly impact on the use of strategies. Nevertheless, both task typology and the particular language being learned may have an effect on strategies utilised.