Atkins, Johndemissie, Fassil2020-11-302023-12-052020-11-302023-12-051992-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/23727The 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 · proficient group, because of their lower age/were less ihhibited and we~e more free in their use of the language.enSenior high school students in oral Production of englishThesis