Communication strategies employed by Senior high school students in oral Production of english
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1992-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa Universiy
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe the types of
procedures (communication strategies) students adopt when faced
with communication problems due to language shortage and to
see if these procedures are influenced by students' proficiency
level. The interlanguage produced by the subjects was classi~
fied using a slightly modified version of the taxonomy produced
by Faerch and Kasper (1983). The frequency count of the stra~
tegies showed that the choice of specific strategies was largely
determined by the task type. Thus it was found that subjects
used more reduction strategies than achievement strategies in
the story retelling task but in picture description and giving
directions, they used more achievement strategies than reduction
strategies.
In order to see the effect of proficiency level on the
choice of communication strategies, subjects were selected from
two different grade levels~gradc 10 and grade 12. The total
number of strategies used by each group was added up and it was
found that the less proficient group (those from 10th grade)
used more communication strategies than the more proficient
group. A comparison between the strategy preferences of the
two groups showed that the less proficient group used more
reduction strategies and achievement strategies based on Ll than
the more proficient group. These two findings are in line with
the findings of most other studies on learners' use of communi~
cation strategies. However, wh~n considering the specific types
of reduction strategies that were employed by the two groups,
it was found that the less proficient froup used more formal
reduction strategies than the more proficient group while the
more proficient group used the strategies of topic avoidance
and message abandonment more frequently than the less proficient
group. This greater preoccupation with the form of the language
at the expense of the meaning of the message, on the part of
the more proficient group, is hypothesized as being the result
of personality factors, that is, the more proficient group,
because of their higher age and hence seniority may have been
more afraid of making mistakes infront of people and thus avoided
,
l anguage forms which they were not sure about while the l es s ยท
proficient group, because of their lower age/were less ihhibited
and we~e more free in their use of the language.
Description
Keywords
Senior high school students in oral Production of english