Motivational Factors In Communication Strategy Use

The notion of communicative competence has gained recognition in the foreign/second language teaching profession, and has given rise to a number of researches on communication strategies of foreign/second language learners. A review of literature in this field demonstrates various scholarly inquiries into foreign/second language learners' communication strategy employment. However, the effects of learner motivation on communication strategy use have been left untouched, which prompts the implementation of this study.This paper reports a study that probes into the influence that learners' motivation exerts on their communication strategy use. The three motivational factors examined are interest, target, and goal orientation, and they are hypothesized to correlate with high frequency of L2-based communication strategy use. 114 subjects are asked to fill out a questionnaire intended to find out their learning motivation and communication strategy use. According to their scores on the three motivational factors, the subjects are divided into three groups: the high, middle, and low groups. Processed by using SPSS, the reported frequency of communication strategies used by the three groups is compared, and T-tests are performed on the mean of communication strategy use among the three groups in terms of interest, target, and goal orientation.Results display that learners with high motivation are prone to employ significantly more L2-based communication strategies than learners with low motivation. In terms of interest, significant difference of communication strategy use is found between the high and low groups, and so is between the middle and low groups; with respect to target and goal orientation, significant difference is also reported between the high and low groups, even though the middle and low groups do not exhibit significant difference in communication strategy use. Therefore, the three hypotheses are confirmed.Pedagogical implications of the study are documented. It is suggested that learners' motivation be promoted so as to enhance their communication strategy use. The issue of communication strategy instruction is also addressed in this thesis. Drawing upon the previous research in this field, the author holds that communication strategy training is conducive to the development of learners' strategic competence. On the other hand, overall development of the interlanguage should be highlighted too.