A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...
A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...
A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...
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and adjusting meanings, five <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m were adopted as <strong>the</strong> research targets in this<br />
study. The three reduction strategies were <strong>to</strong>pic avoidance, message abandonment,<br />
and meaning replacement strategies in <strong>the</strong> reduction set. The two achievement<br />
strategies were interlanguage-based, and cooperation strategies. This study provided<br />
explanations <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> schemes within <strong>the</strong> five strategies.<br />
First <strong>of</strong> all, in an article written <strong>by</strong> Tarone, Cohen, and Dumas for Faerch and<br />
Kasper’s Strategies in Interlanguage Communication, “<strong>to</strong>pic avoidance” was<br />
described as: “<strong>the</strong> attempt <strong>to</strong> <strong>to</strong>tally evade communication about <strong>to</strong>pics which require<br />
<strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> target language rules or forms which <strong>the</strong> learner does not yet know very<br />
well” (Tarone, Cohen & Dumas, 1983, p. 10). Their statement recommends <strong>the</strong><br />
speakers should move away from an interaction in which <strong>the</strong>y had very little<br />
comprehension about <strong>the</strong> <strong>to</strong>pics. That is, for achieving a purpose <strong>of</strong> effective<br />
communication, students needed <strong>to</strong> focus on a subject matter in which interlocu<strong>to</strong>rs<br />
were interested in and well acquainted in order <strong>to</strong> reduce <strong>the</strong> lexical or knowledge<br />
difficulties in communication.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> reduction set, <strong>the</strong> second strategy, message abandonment strategy was<br />
explained <strong>by</strong> Tarone (1983), “The learners begin <strong>to</strong> talk about a concept but are<br />
unable <strong>to</strong> continue and s<strong>to</strong>p in mid-utterance” (p. 63). In fact, this strategy advised<br />
that <strong>the</strong> learners should abandon <strong>the</strong>ir attempt <strong>to</strong> convey an intended expression if<br />
<strong>the</strong>y judged that <strong>the</strong> intended meaning finally could not be expressed within <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
limited linguistic competence.<br />
Additionally, <strong>the</strong> last strategy in <strong>the</strong> reduction set, <strong>the</strong> meaning replacement<br />
strategy, also could be termed as “semantic avoidance strategy” (Faerch & Kasper,<br />
1983c, p. 44), which indicated that <strong>the</strong> learners should alter a difficult intended<br />
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