A Study Of Oral Communication Strategies Used By Chinese Non-English Postgraduate Students From The International Teachers' Perspective

The study on communication strategies (CSs) has been going for a long time and the theories have been greatly developed, but controversies still remain in this field and people have not reached agreement on its definition, typology and other relevant hot issues. Furthermore, empirical studies on CSs are relatively deficient. Among studies on CSs, three ever-existing problems are as follows: (1) Researchers still can not agree with each other on what constitutes a CS; (2) How do L2 learners use strategies when interacting with their communication peers in actual English as a foreign language (EFL) situation? (3) Until so far, no study has been conducted on the use of OCSs used by Chinese non-English postgraduate students from the international teachers'perspective. In view of those problems, it is necessary to examine the OCSs used by Chinese non-English postgraduate students, who are cultivated as high-quality intellectuals. In the present study, both questionnaire survey and interview are conducted to both students and international teachers to investigate OCSs used by Chinese non-English postgraduate students. And the following three research questions are especially addressed and examined: (1) What OCSs do Chinese non-English postgraduate students use according to their self-evaluation? Is it related to their oral English proficiency? (2) What OCSs do Chinese non-English postgraduate students use according to the international teachers'report based on their observation? (3) Which OCSs do the international teachers like Chinese non-English postgraduate students to use? Why?Questionnaires in the present study are based on Faerch and Kasper's taxonomies and Yasuo Nakatani's Oral Communication Strategies Inventory (OCSI). Two groups of subjects participate in this study: a total of 238 Chinese non-English postgraduate students and 29 international teachers from 2006 Autumn English Training Class, Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST). After statistical analysis of the valid questionnaires collected, the main findings in this study are as follows: (1) Students tend to use"Reduction and alternation strategies"most often and"Attempt to think in English strategies"the least often; (2) From the international teachers'perspective, students use"Time-gaining strategies"most frequently,"L1-based strategies"the second frequently and"Non-language strategies"the least frequently. But generally speaking, achievement strategies are more favored by students than reduction strategies; (3) The strategies that international teachers like students to use in conversation are"L2-based strategies (such as Approximation, Exemplification, Paraphrasing),"Non-language strategies","Appeal for assistance strategies"and"Para-language strategies", which all belong to achievement strategies without exception. It is also found in this study that there is a significant difference between students with High and Low Oral English Proficiency in the use of four groups of strategies, namely,"Social-affective strategies","Fluency-oriented strategies","Accuracy-oriented strategies"and"Attempt to think in English strategies". And it is recommended in this paper that L2 teachers should improve students'oral English competence by strengthening students'metacommunicative awareness, encouraging more use of achievement strategies and creating more opportunities for CSs practice.