Strategic Competence : Bridging The Cross-Cultural Communication

The writer of this article is interested in examining the strategic competence, i,e., the ability to solve communication problems an inadequate cornmand of the linguistic and sociocultural code because it, can contribute to the development of an overall communicative competence. The concept of strategic competence is within the general framework of interlanguage development. The articie describes two basic types of communication strategies: reduction and achievement, concentrating particularly on the use of achievement strategies at the discourse level for English learners to manage a communication across culture appropriately.

I'he definition of communication strategies, coined by Larry Selinker (in lrllis, 1985:180), is mentioned by Stern (1983:411), i.e., techniques of cop- irrg with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectly known second ian- guage.Terrel in Jack C. Richard (1983:11) states that communication strate- liics are also crucial at the beginning stages ofsecond language learners.For example, when one does not know the English term 'railway station', she rrright try to paraphrase it into as 'the place where trains go'or'the place for lrain'.Canale and Swain in Rod Ellis (1985:184) proposes that communica- liorr strategies are to be seen as a part of communicative competence and irlclrtitics il as "strategic competence" which means "how to cope in an au- llrentic communicative situation and how to keep the communicative chan- rrel upcn".To sum up Communication strategies can defined as psycholin-guistic plans, which exist as part of the language userts communicative com- petence.They are potentially conscious and serve as substitutes for produc- iion plans, which the leamer is unable to implement (Ellis, 1985:180)' Hence it has two main points, that is, conscious and productive.Bach- man (1996:70) reinforces the concept of strategic competence as a set of metacognitive components, or strateiies, which can be thought of as higher order eiecutive processes that provide a cognitive management function in language use, as well as in other cognitive activities '  -The processes will form the interplay between two languages.They lead to interesting phenomena in which many aspects are involved.Language is the chief means by which people communicate, yet simply knowing the words and gtammar of a language does not ensure successful communica- tion.Its interpretation depends on a multiplicity of factors, inciuding famiiiarity with the context, intonational clues and cultural assumption.Phenom- ena like these are the concern of pragmatics, Blum-Kulka in Van Dijk pro- poses the formal definition of pragmatics.Pragmatics is the science of language seen in relation to its users (Mey,   1993:5); in other words, the focus ofpragrnatics is on both the processes and the product of communication, including its cultural embeddedness and so- cial consequences (Van Dr$, 1997 :37).
As both of the processes and the product of communication are the main concern of this study, Chomsky's view on pragmatics cited from Mey   (1993:36) also reinforces that: .......The proper domain of pragmatics would be what Chomsky has called performance, that is to say, the rvay the individual user went about using his or her language in everyday life.The practice of performance would be then defined in contrast to the user's ab- stract competence, understood as his or her knowledge of the lan- guage and its rules.
Blum-Kulka in Van Dijk (1997:a3) defines interlanguage pragnatics as a study which concerns with the acquisition and performance of pragmatic skills in a second language.Acquisition is the representative of competence; therefore the witer is interested to examine how strategic competence-the ability to solve communication problems despite an inadequate command of the linguistic and sociocultural code-can contribute to the development of an overall communicati ve competence.
Musyahda, Strategic Competence 73 The development of communicative competence consists of (a) organi- sation competence and (b) pragmatic competence.organisation competence refers to ability to form a formal structure ofa language and produce correct grammatical sentences or it comprises knorvledge of linguistic units and the rules ofjoining them together at the levels of sentence (grammatical compe- tence) and discourse (textual competence).Respectively, the competence is divided into two, that is, grammatical and textual.Grammatical competence covers vocabulary, morphology, syntax and phonology; Textual competence refers to the coherent and rhetoric.
Pragmatic competence defines the rational side of mind.Individuals iacking this comperence wouici be unabie ro uner reievant argumenrs or even to form relevant thoughts.There has never been a report on the existence of a culture on earth in which normal individuals would be lacking the ability to be relevant.
Pragmatic ability in a second or foreign language is part of a nonnative speakers OINS) communicative competence and therefore has to be located in a model of communicative ability.Pragmatic competence subdivides into 'illocutionary competence' and 'sociolinguistic competence'.'Illocutionary competence'can be glossed as'knowledge of communicative action and how to carry it out'.The term 'communicative action' is often more accurate than the more familiar term 'speech act'because communicative action is neutral between the spoken and written mode, and the term acknowledges the fact that communicative action can also be irnplemented by silence or nonverbally.'sociolinguistic competence' comprises the ability to use language appropriately according to context.It thus includes the ability to select communicative acts and appropriate strategies to implement them depending on the current status ofthe 'conversational contract' (Richard, I 9g3: 1) oller in Bachman (Bachman,1996:10) points out that strategic compe- tence refers to the mastery of verbal strategy and non-verbal strategy to overcome the failure in communication due to inaccurate competence.Thus, strategic competence consists of three components, that is, (a) assessment, (b) planning, and (c) execution.Assessment covers the area of information recognition, including language variety or dialect, determining language competence to achieve the goal of effective communication, and evaluating the purpose of in-progress communication.Planning consists of relevante point of language competerrce, that is, grammatical, textual, illocutionary and a formula to achieve the goal of communication.Execution is relevance with the mechanism of psychophisilogic to carry out the planning relates to the context and purpose of commonication.
Basically, psychophisiologic mechanism is a neurologic and physio- logic process involved in phases of language use.As language activity is able to operate the model of productive and /or receptive, different skills are needed for each activity.At the receptive process, the skills ofauditory and visual have important roles, while productive aspect involves the skills of neuromuscular.Stern (1983:229) proposes that the third element of communicative competence besides grammatical and sociolinguistic competence, Strategic Competence, is needed by the language learner to know how to conduct himself as someone whose sociocultural and grammatical competence is limited, i.e., to know how to be a'foreigner'.

MENT
The notion 'interlanguage' alludes to a language I'between" two languages, i.e. a target language (TL) norm that a student is trying to achieve, and his first language (Ll).The interlanguage has characteristics of both of these languages.However, the nature of the blending, or how "between" is to be interpreted has always been vague in second language acquisition (SLA).
The main features of interlanguage, which will be used in the diagnostic system, are overgeneralisation of TL rule statements and transfer from L L In the diagnostic system, overgeneralisation will be implemented as constraint relaxation and transfer will be implemented by means of an alternative Ll based grammar.Transfer is understood in the sense, which is used in SLA research.
The second ianguage ieamer, at the beginning oi his stutiy, has his aitention focuse on one norm of the language whose sentences he is attempting to produce.The sketch ofprocess can be described as follows: (l) accepting the notion of target language (TL), i.e., the second language learner is at- tempting to learn, which means that there is only one norm of the dialect within the interlingual focus of attention of the leamer; (2) focusing on ana- lytical attention on interlanguage data (IL), i.e. the utterances that are pro- duced when the leamer attempts to say sentences of a TL.The set of utter- ances for most learners ofa second language is not identical to the hypothe-sized corresponding sdt ofutterances which are produced by native speakers of the TL had he attempted to express the same meaning as the learner.
As the two sets of utterances are not identical, it could be relevant to the lheory of second language learning, that is, one would be compretely justi- fied in hypothesizing perhaps even compelled to hypothesize, the existence of a separate linguistic system based on the observable output which results from learner's attempted production of a TL norm.It is assumed that this linguistic system is called interlanguage.
Strategic competence in the frame of interlanguage respectively can be os-surn.6as the ability to cope with unexpected problems, when the speaker oiforeign ianguage has no reaciy-macie soiution avaiiabie.lt entarls to cer- tain phenomenon in coping with the obstacies, which can be measured using general parameter of oral production.Mariani (1994) proposes o'reduction sffategies" and "achievement strategies".The former strategies cal affect the followi ng circurnstances : if we know that different communicative styles, and different norms of social interaction are not only universal but also simple and easy to understand for the second language learners.It can be hoped that the kind of competence can be used as a tool for investigating lin- guistic interaction in different cultural settings.Particularly, it can be as a basis for teaching successful cross-cultural communication.
interaction (handling a topic/discussion) e. Negotiating meaning and intention seen as paraphrasing and restfucturing.The communication across culture may become less frustrating