Strategic Competence in Virtual Classrooms: An Exploration of Compensation Strategies of Non-native Adult Speakers of English

Compensation strategies, a crucial aspect of strategic competence, are playing a decisive role in effective communication and, used in communication by interlocutors to compensate for their deficiency in the target language. The use of compensation strategies is anticipated to vary depending on the context, due to their context-specific nature. Thus, this descriptive study aims to explore the types and frequencies of compensation strategy use by an international group of graduate students. The data were collected through observation of video-recorded class sessions from nine graduate students studying at a foundation university in Turkey. The results showed that the strategies of “keeping the floor,” “self-rephrasing,” and “appeal to authority” were most frequently utilized. Conversely, strategies like word coinage and non-verbal signs were not employed at all. This research offers insight into the compensation strategies used in online settings, where communication dynamics are notably distinct.