A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...

proposed that this strategy could contribute to reconfirming meanings with the
interlocutors. After the first 5 weeks of training, Ling Mei perceived that she used the
meaning replacement strategy often due to her insufficient vocabulary:
I used this strategy quite often. When I could not remember enough
vocabularies, I used an easier word to express. It was natural that I used the
“meaning replacement” strategy when my English was not good enough. I
detected that when people’s English became better, they less and less used
this strategy. This was a strategy representing a transition process between
basic-level and advanced-level of English proficiency. Lower-level students
needed it and higher-level students less used it. In class, I had used this
strategy. For example, I used “Get Together” instead of “Get Along.” I forgot
the word “Along” in class. “Along” was closer to what I really wanted to
express.
After 10 weeks of training, Ling Mei noticed that she used the interlanguage
strategy to compensate for using the meaning replacement strategy if the
application of the meaning replacement was not successful:
Each strategy had its advantages; meaning replacement strategy made me
express my intended meaning within a very short time, although the meaning
became vague. If my partners still were confused, I could use interlanguage to
explain in order to make my partner clearly catch the meaning. The
interlanguage helped me to provide plenty details of a meaning. It took me
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more time and effort to talk, but it made my partners catch my intended