Study On Communication Strategies In English Writing By Chinese EFL Learners In Model High Schools Of An Hui Province

The ultimate goal of language learning is to communicate with it, so naturally; the improvement of communicative competence becomes an important task for English teaching. As one of the important components of communicative competence, the strategic competence can be performed in real communication by communication strategies (CSs), and thus senior high school students should cultivate themselves to use effective CSs through various channels. CSs can be both adopted in speaking and writing. So far as the English learning in China is concerned, since students do not have many opportunities to communicate with native English speakers, the actual use of English is to a great extent realized in the way of writing. However, studies both home and aboard mainly focus on oral CSs and few studies focus on CSs in writing. Therefore, the present study makes a research on the situation of the senior high school students’ employment of CSs in English writing, in hope of bringing about some suggestions to English writing teaching and learning.The qualitative and quantitative data are collected through analyzing the questionnaire. The questionnaire is designed by referring to the taxonomies on CSs mainly by Tarone (1980), Faerch&Kasper (1984), Oxford (1990) and Chen (1990). The taxonomy of CSs in writing includes five components, of which are, avoidance strategies, achievement strategies, empathy strategies, clarification strategies and cooperation strategies respectively. The senior high students of grade2are chosen as the subject of the study, who are from three modal high schools in Anhui province. The data collection tries to explore how Chinese high school students apply communication strategies in their English writing. The article attempts to answer the following research questions:1. What is the general situation of senior high school students’employment of communication strategies in English writing?2. Are there any statistically significant gender differences in senior high school students’ employment of communication strategies in English writing? 3. Is there any correlation between CSs employment and subjects’general language proficiency in English writing?Findings of the study can be summarized as follows:First, the subjects’occasional employment of CSs proceeds from spontaneity without systematic training and most subjects are not aware of the CSs in English writing. The result shows that, except for avoidance strategies, the frequency of other four strategies are less than "3"(sometimes).Secondly, the significant difference of CSs in writing between males and females is only reflected in the use of "empathy strategies". And in the whole, female students use CSs more frequently than male students. The possible reasons lie in the fact that male and female students differ in cognitive, affective and sociolinguistic states.Thirdly, Pearson Correlation analysis indicates there is significantly negative correlation between CSs employment and English Writing Achievement. The higher the students’level of English writing is, the less CS they would like to employ; and the learner’s language proficiency determines learners’selection of particular types of CSs. Meanwhile t-test results show that there is a significant difference in the use of empathy strategies.Based on the findings of this study, the author explores how to strengthen strategic awareness and how to infuse CSs into English writing from pedagogical aspect in order to offer some implications for English writing teaching and learning.1. Adjusting teaching materials is quite necessary. Teaching materials ought to be designed to leave students room for thinking. Except for description of strategies, problems based on real communication and the topic of every module can be designed to stimulate students’attempts in using CSs.2. A systematic introduction of CSs, including its definition, components and usage, is needed to foster students’awareness of the importance of CSs in English learning.3. Teachers should strengthen awareness of integrating CSs training into classroom activities.4. Gender difference should be concerned as a factor in the instruction of CS. Sometimes the group may need to be re-assigned, and sometimes the task may need to be reconstructed o5. Due to different proficiency level, students should try to adopt CSs flexibly to improve their English writing ability.