Font Size: a A A

A Study On Chinese EFL Learners' Strategies In Interlanguage Communication

Posted on:2011-01-31Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J D GuoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115330332459110Subject:English Language and Literature
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Research on L2 (second language1) communication strategies (CSs) has a history of almost 4 decades starting from 1972 when Selinker coined the term of interlanguage, the product of five central cognitive processes,one of which is communication strategies. Studies on CSs have contributed a lot to both the development of some fields such as applied linguistics and second language acquisition, and L2 teaching and learning. Based on the systematic review and analysis of the previous studies on CSs, this dissertation mainly explores the Chinese EFL learners'strategies in interlanguage communication. The selection of this research topic comes out of following considerations.First, learner's employment of CSs is a reflection of both the degree of their interlanguage development and their communicative competence. The study of CSs can provide insight into how interlanguage changes and develops as language learners become increasingly proficient in the target language (Corrales and Call, 1989). In addition, it's universally acknowledged that the ultimate goal of the second language learning and teaching is to develop learners'communicative competence,one of whose components is the learners'strategic competence. Therefore, it is of great importance to study learners'CSs in interlanguage communication.Second, previous studies on CSs are inadequate. CS research has been carried out for many years, but there are sill controversies over relevant issues (Liu Naimei, 2006); CS research in the Chinese EFL learning environment is relatively rare (Zhang Li, 2008:14), and the focus of some studies is only on introducing and analyzing theoretical aspects (Liu Naimei, 2006). Many researchers such as Tarone (1977, 1983), Corder (1981), F?rch and Kasper (1983) and Nakatani (2006) claim that CSs are what the second language learners take to deal with the communication problems they encounter; D?rnyei and Kormos (1998) distinguish 4 main sources of L2 communication problems: resource deficits, processing time pressure, perceived deficiencies in one's own language output, and perceived deficiencies in the interlocutor's performance, but there is still a lack of quantitative research exploring how communication strategies and communication problems are related. Furthermore, verbal communication takes several forms and occurs in different situations; however, previous CS studies both at home and abroad mainly focus on learner's oral communication in general; few explore CSs in oral tests and very few touch upon CSs in interpreting,although both of them are also forms of communication. Thus, there remains much room for exploration and improvement in the field of CS research.Third, since strategic competence is one of communicative competence, it is necessary to study Chinese EFL learners'CSs in order to know more about and improve their communicative competence. Now in China, the quality of English education is recognized, to some degree, as important as national successes especially after China's entry into WTO (Yang Jun and Li Xiaoxiang, 2008: 6). There are a large number of EFL learners in China, but vast majority of them are still not able to communicate effectively in English which they have been learning for many years (Wu Zhuang and Wen Weiping, 2009). Chinese students start English learning in their childhood, and many of them have never stopped learning English until they obtained their bachelor's degrees, master's degrees or even doctor's degrees, but most of them can not open their mouths and make themselves understood in English (Zhang Yaoxue, 2008). Many students who have already passed the CET4 and CET6 are still deficient in the ability to communicate in English (Liu Guohui, 2009). Some other studies (Wen Qiufang et al., 1999; Wen Qiufang, 2001; Liu Qin, 2008) have also found out that a fairly high percentage of English majors failed to attain a satisfactory level of oral English proficiency. Thus, there must be some problems in China's EFL education.One of the problems in EFL education in China is that greater importance is attached to the accumulation of knowledge rather than the development of EFL learners'ability to use the language (Dai Weidong, 2001; Dai Weidong and Zhang Xuemei, 2001). According to Widdowson (1999: 67), linguistic skills are one of the components of communicative competence, but not the reverse; the acquisition of linguistic skills does not seem to guarantee the consequent acquisition of communicative competence and even over-emphasis on drills and exercises for the production and reception of sentences would tend to prevent communicative competence from development. Therefore,"the learner needs to acquire not only a repertoire of linguistic items, but also a repertoire of strategies for using them in concrete situations."(Littlewood, 1990: 4)In view of the above situations, this study examines the Chinese EFL learner's strategies in interlanguage communication. To be more exact, it focuses on Chinese EFL learner's strategies in oral communication rather than written communication, since the former is in much greater need of improvement than the latter. Thus, this study addresses research questions on CSs from 3 perspectives: (1) Chinese EFL Learners'communication strategies, communication problems and their correlation; (2) communication strategies in the oral test; (3) communication strategies in interpreting. The major findings are as follows.First of all, with regard to CSs and CPs, of the 9 investigated categories of CSs, the most frequently used CSs are appealing, avoidance and stalling; the first three biggest problems the subjects reported having are DSLC, DTPK and DCS. DSL is ranked the fourth of all 9 types of communication problems, which is really a thought-provoking phenomenon. Avoidance, appealing and L1-based strategies have significant positive correlations with most of the CPs, suggesting that the more CPs the learners have, the more frequently they employ these strategies. Few of other strategies are positively correlated with the CPs. Therefore, to a certain extent, Chinese EFL learners are strategically unskilled in EFL communication. Furthermore, CSs and CPs also vary in terms of the learner's major, gender, proficiency of English and communication experience.Secondly, in the oral test, avoidance and stalling are used most frequently; non-verbal and L1-based strategies are employed least and L2-based strategies fall in between. The learners'general proficiency in English has significant negative correlations with avoidance and L1-based strategies and their oral English proficiency is significantly and negatively correlated with L1-based strategies. The subjects reported using avoidance very significantly more and other CSs less in the testing situation than in the non-testing situation. Moreover, the total CSs were used in the oral testing situation with very significantly lower frequency than in the non-testing situation.Finally, this study classifies CSs in interpreting into six categories: gist-delivering, gist-obtaining, asking for help, using prefabricated patterns, and memorizing and retrieving. Based on this classification, the Chinese EFL learners'beliefs are investigated. On the whole, the learners tend to accept the general beliefs about CSs in interpreting, and they also hold positive beliefs about specific CSs in interpreting, especially the strategy of using prefabricated patterns, but the strategy of asking for help is an exception. The strategy of asking for help correlates negatively with L2 proficiency and the correlation is very significant. Females and males differ significantly in the beliefs about some strategies which are more acceptable to females than to males. But females reject the strategy of asking for help more than the males do.Based on these results, this dissertation discusses the theoretical and pedagogical implications of this study and presents some suggestions for further research.
Keywords/Search Tags:Chinese EFL learners, interlanguage, oral communication, communication strategies, communicative competence
PDF Full Text Request
Related items