This paper investigates the various waysspeakers manage problems and overcome difficulties in L2 communication. FollowingDörnyei and Scott (1997), we distinguish four main sources of L2 communicationproblems: (a) resource deficits, (b) processing time pressure, (c) perceived deficiencies inone's own language output, and (d) perceived deficiencies in the interlocutor'sperformance. In order to provide a systematic description of the wide range of copingmechanisms associated with these problem areas (e.g., communication strategies, meaningnegotiation mechanisms, hesitation devices, repair mechanisms), we adopt a psycholinguisticapproach based on Levelt's (1989, 1993, 1995) model of speech production.Problem-solving devices, then, are analyzed and classified according to how they are related tothe different pre- and post-articulatory phases of speech processing, and we illustrate the variousmechanisms by examples and retrospective comments taken from L2 learners' data.