Study On Communication Strategies In English Writing By Chinese EFL Learners

Foreign language teaching and learning have been considered as a major area of applied linguistic study which aims at facilitating the process of language teaching and learning. The present College English Syllabus in China stresses the development of students'communicative competence. According to Canale (1983), communicative competence consists of grammatical competence or accuracy, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence. Communication strategies are the important means by which the strategic competence can be performed in real communication. Nowadays, most studies focus on communication strategies in speaking, ignoring those strategies in writing. However, the author prefers the study on communication strategies in writing since writing is more common to Chinese EFL learners. This study is designed to explore how Chinese EFL learners in college apply communication strategies in their English writing. The findings of this study show that: (1) Most Chinese EFL learners adopt some communication strategies in their English writing unconsciously. (2) The strategies'frequency is different in concrete concepts identification and abstract concepts identification,and different in descriptive writing and narrative writing as well. (3) The instruction of communication strategies may influence the frequency and efficiency of some strategies applied in writing. Based on the procedure and findings of this study, the author outlines its limitations and obtains some implications for language teaching and learning and for linguistic study as well.