A Study On Communication Strategies In Senior High School English Teaching And Learning

The ultimate aim of language learning is to acquire communicative competence and to communicate. In EFL teaching, developing and improving learners'communicative competence is being more and more important. However, most senior high school students'communicative competence is still underdeveloped. An essential approach to communicative competence is to help learners use communication strategies, which is one important element of communicative competence. But in traditional ELT of China, strategic competence is neg1ected. Thus, this thesis is based on a survey of the senior high school students'using of communication strategies in their English learning, and analyzes the factors of their using of communication strategy. It is hoped that language teachers will adopt some of the suggested techniques from the result of the survey to enhance the students'effective use of communication strategies.The thesis first identifies the theories of communicative competence and communication strategies, the nature and classification and training in teaching of it. Then after making a research of English communication strategies of some senior high school students, the writer, in the way of questionnaire and interview, finds the application of the students'communication strategies. Finally, the writer makes an analysis of the factors leading to this phenomenon and proposes teaching application from it. Results show that senior high school students tend to choose some strategies to help them in expressing themselves when they encountering problems. However, their using of communication strategies is greatly influenced by some factors: 1) the knowledge of communication strategies; 2) the environment of learning; 3) the traditional education and culture; 4) L2 proficiency. Generally speaking, the subjects of lower L2 proficiency use more reduction strategies than higher ones.The results provide some implication for foreign language teaching. Teachers should first introduce communication strategies systematically in English classes to raise their meta-communicative awareness about communication strategies use. To make the students adapt to various communicative situations, teachers should design various diversities of communicative contexts. Cultural teaching and students'L2 proficiency should also be paid attention to. Through those methods, students could gradually make full use of communication strategies to help them communicate and realize the ultimate aim of communicative competence to some extent.