Communicative competence has at least three components: grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, and strategic competence. Strategic competence is the knowledge of how to use one's language to communicate intended meaning. Foreign language students may develop competence in each of these three areas at different rates, but all are important in developing communicative competence. Communicative classroom materials and exercises should address both the student's overall skill in successfully conveying information and his/her ability to use communication strategies when the process of conveying information encounters a problem. Most materials address only overall skills. Research has yielded some information about communication strategies that can be applied in foreign language teaching. Teachers can encourage students to use these strategies by providing both opportunities for practice and actual instruction in their use. Instruction can be direct or indirect, based on classroom exercises. The exercises providing practice build resources that allow the students to be flexible in real-world interactions. (MSE)