A Study On Communication Strategy Training Of Chinese Middle School Students

Communication strategy is a way used to express a meaning in a second or foreign language, by a learner who has a limited command of the language. In trying to communicate, a learner may have to make up for a lack of knowledge of grammar or vocabulary (Paribakht 1985, Corder 1983, Fasper 1983). According to the foregoing research, the proficiency of the learner influences his choice of strategy (Tarone 1983,EIlis 1984,Bialystok 1983). But on the other hand, strategies training can make up for the lack of language level. (Kasper 1983, Tarone 1983, Chen Siqing 1992). With the conviction that strategic competence and grammatical competence influence each other, this study employs an experimental design to compare two different kinds of training methods-explicit training and implicit training to find out some effective ways of improving the communication strategy competence of Chinese middle school students .The independent variable of the experiment is different training method, while the dependent variable is the subjects' communicative strategy competence. The study proposed the following hypotheses :Hypothesis (1): The communicative effectiveness of the students who receive explicit training (experimental group) is higher than that of the students who receive implicit training (control group). Hypothesis (2): The experimental group will use less reduction strategies than the control group. Hypothesis (3): The experimental group will use less L1-based strategies than the control group. Hypothesis (4): The experimental group will use more L2-based strategies than the control group.The thesis consists of four chapters:In Chapter 1, the purpose and significance of the present study were expressed, and at the same time the research questions were put forward.Chapter 2 defines communication strategies and strategic competence. The relationship between the two was discussed. Research on communication strategy training was reviewed in terms of explicit, implicit, criticism and advocating. It also introduced O'Malley's strategy training model CALLA and the theory of classroom assessment.Chapter 3 reports an experimental research on communication strategy training of senior one students. 30 subjects (including 14 boys and 16 girls) chosen from two parallel senior 1 classes of No.l Middle School of Baiyin participated the experiment, which lasted 3 months. The experimental group (15 subjects) received explicit training while the control group received implicit training. Both formative evaluation and summative evaluation were applied in the study. For the formative evaluation,study portfolios were set up for each subject in forms of self-evaluation, collaborative-evaluation, and teacher-directed evaluation. Summative evaluation was carried out in the form of Oral Post-test with Peng Qigui's test as its main instrument. The conversations were recorded by microphone into tapes and the amount of the use of the communicative strategies was counted, by which communication strategy competence was measured. The outcome of the experiment showed that the students who have received explicit training use communicative strategies more effectively than those who have received implicit training. The experimental group use less reduce strategies and L1-based strategies than the control group. But there were no significant difference in the use of L2-based strategies between the two.Chapter 4 and 5 drew a conclusion to the significance of the present study in EFL teaching and learning, pointed out its limitations, and put forward some suggestions for future researches.