Use of Communication Strategies by Thai EFL Learners

Factors Affecting the Choice of Oral Communication Strategies
Previous studies indicated that the use of communication strategies was greatly affected by
English-speaking proficiency (e.g., Rost and Ross, 1991; Huang and Naerssen, 1987) and
task type (e.g., Poulisse, 1990 ; Wongsawang, 2001 ;Weerarak, 2003 ; Nakatani, 2005) in
communication process since the selection of CS types varies according to these factors.
As suggested by Bialystock (1997), the most significant predictor of specific communication
strategy use is language proficiency. In his longitudinal study, Ellis (1984) found that high
proficiency learners were likely to employ language-based strategies or compensatory
strategies e.g. word coinage, approximation and generalization and low proficiency learners
resorted more to knowledge-based and repetition. However, some available studies suggest
the contrastive findings that that less proficiency learners used more compensatory strategies
than the advanced ones as the former ones have adequate linguistic competence to use oral
communication strategies to overcome their communication deficiencies.
Regarding task type, different task requirements need response with different communication
strategies since certain strategies seem to fix specific communicative problems (Bialystok,
1981). Moreover, the familiarity of the speaker with the tasks significantly influences the
choice of communication strategies. Yule and Tarone (1997) also support this idea by saying
that “The more abstract the prompt, the more likely that conceptually related analogies will
be used. The more concrete and familiar the prompt, the more likely the simple names and
everyday functions will be mentioned” (p. 26).
Methodology
Participant
The participants consisted of 30 male and female students sampled from the total population
of 36 students who are in the M.3 (grade 9) English Program in Joseph Upatham School. The
researcher classified all students into high (H), middle (M) or low (L) groups on the basis of
their scores of Key English Test (KET). The scoring criteria described learners’ abilities in a
foreign language using five levels, from Fail to Pass with Distinction.
Materials/Research tools
Oral interview task
In this study, the semi-structured one-to-one interview was conducted with two
predetermined sets of questions. For the first part, students were asked 10 questions about
personal information on general topics such as family, accommodations, school, free-time
activities, and future career. The second part was about one topic concerning 2011 Big Flood
in Thailand, which comprises 10 questions. Oral interview with two parts of questions lasted
approximately 15-30 minutes.
Picture story narrative
After the interview session, students were asked to perform picture story narrative task,
telling a story of two boys caught in the storm on a fishing boat within defined period of time
at least 3 minutes.
Procedures
Both speaking tasks, oral interview and picture story narrative, were carried out after the end
of each school day in a laboratory room to avoid disturbance. They were asked to perform
each task individually. For the oral interview task, each participant was required to respond to
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