Communication Strategies Used by English Major Third Year Students: Debre Markos Univeersity in Focus
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Date
2011-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate communication strategies used
by English major third year students at Debre Markos Univers ity. The study
specifically tried to see the most and least commonly used strategies by
students, and to examine the role of most commonly used strategies on
students' communicative skill. The study involved 90 students.In order to meet these objectives, data were collected through questionnaire
and classroom observation with the help of video recording. The data were
analyzed using SPSS (Stati stical Package for Social Science).The results of the study s howed that students mos t frequently u sed seven
strategies out of the seventeen. These were: Time gaining, Asking for help,
Substitution, Function and Form avoidance, Literal translation and
Description strategies. On the other hand, Message abandonment, Language
switching, Over Generalization and Word -coinage were the le a s t frequently
used strategies.Besides, Time gaining, Asking for help, Literal translation and Function
avoidance were helpful strategies on students' communicative skill. On the
contrary, n e ither the classroom obse rvation nor the video-recorded data s h ow
the role of Form avoidance, Substitution and Description strategies on
students' communicative skill.On the basis of these results, it was recommended that Students s hould be
introduced to various communication s trategies in different activities.
Students would benefit more if they u sed more Achievement strategies which
he lp them to stay in communication and improve their communication skill
while they speak in English rather than avoidance strategies. This is
because in A'Joidance stategy, students avoid words or expressions. In such
cases, students might ignore important events that might be expected by
their instructors. For example, in classroom presentation if students use
achievement strategies, they would see possible ways of expressing those
ideas.
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English Major Third Year Students