This study presents a review of the comprehension problems encountered by six pairs of adult speakers of French L2 during the completion of three communicative and interactive tasks with speakers from the same or different L1 language background. Excerpts of their interactions revealed that the problems encountered and the communication strategies used to solve these problems were not dependent on language background, but rather on the speakers’ proficiency level in the L2 and their knowledge of necessary vocabulary for task completion. Pedagogical and acquisitional implications that emerged from the analysis are presented, including the importance of explicitly teaching a repertoire of communication strategies related to specific difficulties.