A Case Study On Communication Strategies Used By Chinese EFL Learners

Communication strategies (CSs) are a major means to keep communication going on when difficulties or even breakdowns occur in communication. They enable the speakers to reach their communicative goals. CSs are of great importance for Chinese learners, who, although equipped with much grammatical knowledge, often find it hard to maintain their conversation with native speakers. However, Chinese learners are generally not familiar with the study of CSs and lack practice of CSs. It is based on such concern that the present writer intends to provide a thorough introduction of CSs theories and research, and to make Chinese learners aware of the importance of CSs.After introducing the historic development of CS theories, outlining three major approaches to CS definition and classification, and discussing some major and controversial issues in CSs research, the paper focuses on a research conducted by the present writer. Although there exist certain limitations in the research, it does shed some light on the Chinese learners' use of CSs. Based on a longitudinal study, this paper examines the effects of proficiency and task on Chinese learners' selection of CSs and also makes an attempt to see whether CS experiences a development through a period of months. Twenty subjects from an English training course in Beijng Mobile Communication Co. Ltd. participated in the study. Like the Nijmegen group, the present writer finds that the factor of task plays a major role in the subjects' selection of CSs; and no obvious development is seen in the study. Arranged in research topics, the paper also investigates the reasons of the results and the writer proposes her own hypothesis of learner's controllability to explain the task effect on CS selection. Other important findings are also presentedFinally, the pedagogical implications are discussed. Generally speaking, the researcher agrees that CS is worth explicit training in the classroom, and gives some suggestion on what should do in the class to better train learners in their use of CSs.It is hoped that the paper and the study conducted can provide some insight into the CSs research, and inspire more studies in China.