A Study of Communication Strategies of Chinese Junior High School EFL Learners

• Main Authors: Wei-lun Liu, 劉緯綸
• Other Authors: Teh-suan Liou
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48166713986150364134

碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 外國文學所 === 96 === The purpose of the present study was to analyze the communication strategies used by junior high school EFL students in English-only conversations. The participants were ten second-year junior high students (four males; six females). Students were allowed to choose their own speaking partners. Ten students were paired up into five dyads to participate in three different communicative tasks. All the fifteen interactions were videotaped and transcribed for the researcher to analyze as the quantitative data. In addition, in order to understand the rationales behind the employment of the communication strategies, qualitative data was used to analyze the functions of the communication strategies. To prevent subjectivity, the interviews with the five dyads were conducted while the dyads were watching their videotape with the researcher respectively. The results show that twelve out of fourteen communication strategies were employed by the participants. Clarification Request was the most frequently used strategy. Word Coinage and Comprehension Check were not adopted at all. Besides, two-way tasks elicited more communication strategies and turn-takings than one-way tasks. Qualitative data indicated that all the used communication strategies could serve the function of maintaining the flow of the conversation, but the rationales behind the employment of the strategies were not always the same as their definitions.