Dans l'enseignement des langues vivantes, on assiste depuis une décennie à un vaste mouvement visant à redéfinir, en termes de compétences, les objectifs de formation aussi bien que les capacités des élèves et des...

SOMMAIRE : Vincent LOUIS : Introduction : une approche théorique et méthodologique de la tâche-problème en didactique des langues vivantes / Jean-Louis DUMORTIER : A propos des tâches-problèmes de communication / Martine DERIVRY-PLARD : Les études de cas et la didactique des langues... / Joaquim DOLZ et Christophe RONVEAUX : Du texte littéraire à la tâche scolaire : travailler Novarina, du jeu au signe, du corps au sens / Sandrine AEBY DAGHÉ : Lire un texte et le transformer...

Four hypotheses are addressed concerning the relationship of the types and proportion of strategies adopted by the subject groups to the proficiency levels, and the subjects' rate of success and effective use of communication strategies for conveying intended meaning as they relate to proficiency level in the target language. The subjects were 40 Persian students in Canada at two distinct proficiency levels, and 20 native English speakers as a comparison group. Communication skills were elicited by a concept-identification task using concrete and abstract nouns, and involving both oral production and interaction between members of the two groups. A taxonomy of communication strategies was developed, with classification into four communicative approaches (linguistic, contextual, conceptual, and mime) based on the type of knowledge used by the speaker for their adoption. Results also showed that differences between groups in the adoption of communication approach types were minimal except in the relative frequency of use of some strategies, and that the groups differed in success rate at getting meaning across and in their effective use of strategies to communicate abstract concepts. It is concluded that use of communications strategies and target language proficiency level are related, use of communication strategies is dynamic, and that differing surface realizations of speakers' communication skills cumulatively affect success in conveying meaning. (MSE)