A Case Study On The Effect Of Communication Strategies On The Continuation Task Of Senior High EFL Learners

Communication strategies(CSs),a part of communicative competence and an important cognitive factor of language acquisition,have been explored in research for almost fifty years.Much research has made plain that the acquisition of linguistic skills and knowledge does not seem to guarantee the consequent acquisition of communicative competence,and learners need to employ strategies to assist language use.Many Chinese EFL learners have encountered the problem that although they have a good command of grammatical knowledge and a wide range of vocabulary,they still get stuck and are unable to carry out their communicative intent.To some extent,compared with speaking and writing,Chinese EFL learners perform better in reading and listening tests.The phenomenon might relate to the lack of oral and written strategic competence.However,CSs are always neglected by teachers and learners during the process of English teaching,especially in writing instruction in China.Therefore,this study tries to take communication strategies as a point of penetration to explore its influence on the writing of senior high EFL learners.The research aims to explore the difference of CSs use in writing by the senior high EFL learners and further figure out the relative effect of such CSs use.Specifically,this thesis attempts to explore: 1)What are the CSs used in the continuation task by the senior high EFL learners in testing situation and non-testing situation? 2)How do the senior high EFL learners' CSs employ in the continuation task vary in terms of writing proficiency? 3)What is the effect of senior high EFL learners' CSs use on their writing related to the types of CSs?As a case study,this research chose the continuation task as the main writing task and selected six participants as case samples from Grade Three students of a senior high school based on opportunistic convenience sampling and typical case sampling.And the participants were divided into two different writing proficiency groups for observing their fourteen-week learning.The participants were involved in the test,interview,think-aloud protocols,and retrospective reports.Moreover,the questionnaires were distributed in 4 classes including 108 students and classroom observation was also conducted in two classes.By combining the qualitative and quantitative methods,the research shed light on that as a whole,formal and functional reduction strategy,literal translation,synonym,antonym,and retrieval strategies are frequently used by the senior high EFL learners,and code switching,superordinate,substitution,word coinage,exemplification and,simile are rarely or never used in the continuation task due to the content and form of the special writing task.Furthermore,there exist some similarities and differences in the types and frequency of the CSs used in writing in terms of communication situations(testing and non-testing situation)and writing proficiency.The learners use more reduction strategy and less L1-based,L2-based and retrieval strategies in the testing situation than in the non-testing situation.And the high writing proficiency learners tend to use the L2-based strategies and knowledge-based strategies than the low writing proficiency learners,especially the antonym,substitution,and exemplification.The study has made plain that the learners tried to use different CSs for various purposes.And the different choices of using the CSs for different purposes may or may not have an impact(positive or negative)on learners' writing.According to the research results,this thesis puts forward relevant suggestions on strengthening teachers' and learners' cognition of CSs,providing reasonable strategic guidance for teachers in writing teaching and effective CSs to students in learning.