This paper discusses the notion of communicative competence, particularly strategic competence in English language teaching. Strategic competence refers to the individual's ability to use communication strategies such as paraphrase, circumlocution, literal translation, lexical approximation, and mime to get their message across and to compensate for a limited or imperfect knowledge of rules or the interference of such factors as fatigue, distraction, and inattention. The paper examines various definitions of strategic competence and communication strategies, noting that both native and non-native speakers use communication strategies, but non-native speakers use them more frequently to cope with problems encountered while attempting to speak a second language. Successful language learning is not only a matter of developing grammatical, sociolinguistic, and semantic competence but also strategic competence, which involves the use of communication strategies and their role in transmitting and comprehending messages successfully. The paper concludes by discussing the place of communication strategies in language teaching. (Contains 10 bibliographic references.) (SM)