“Wait, How Do I Say that in English?” Communication Strategies for English as a Foreign Language Learners

Abstract

This research aimed to investigate communication speaking skill strategies applied by two groups of English foreign language learners in two boarding senior high schools in Aceh, Indonesia. Of the successful group, there were 52 learners and of the less successful group 24 learners. To collect the data, this study employed the observation sheet adapted by Tarone(1978), which determined nine categories of communication strategies; approximation, word coinage, circumlocution, literal translation, language switch, mime, appeal for assistance, topic avoidance, and message abandonment. The students were observed during their speaking class. The result of this research is the literal translation, approximation, and language switchbecome the most frequent strategies used by the less successful learners. It implies that the students have had difficulties communicating in the target language. On the other hand, successful learners prefer to use approximation, literal translation, and appeal for assistance strategies. It implies that the students tend to speak and communicate well, if not yet fluently. Based on the findings, it is suggested that English teachers should introduce several communication strategies for both groups of learners to improve their effective communication.

Communication Strategies Used by Papuan EFL Students

“…Generally, they employed communication strategies because of thinking time, avoiding nervousness, avoiding hesitation, overcoming the lexical deficiency of the target language, avoiding knowledge gap, justification, emphasizing the intended meaning, overcoming communication breakdowns. Several studies have justified those findings above (Al-Gharaibeh, 2016;Aziz et al, 2018;Dewi et al, 2018;Jumiati et al, 2017;Nizar et al, 2018;Nugroho, 2019;Saidah et al, 2020;Syahri, 2009a).…”

“…Additionally, the study carried out by (Aziz et al, 2018) distinguished between successful and unsuccessful students, and they found that roughly three communication strategies were not employed for both successful and unsuccessful students, namely circumlocution, word coinage, and mime strategies. Regarding this study, it was found that the absence of some communication strategies occurred in this research as well, and among others are circumlocution, word coinage, and mime strategies.…”

An Investigation of Undergraduate Students' Oral Communication Strategy (Ocs) in Debate Class

“…Students prefer to use other strategies to solve their problems than using this strategy. Aziz et al, (2018) stated that the students describe the characteristics or elements of an object or action instead of using the appropriate target language item. The fourth is approximation.…”