The Effects Of Communication Strategy Training On EFL Learners' Oral Proficiency

Due to the limits of college English teaching such as inadequacy of the teaching time, large class size, pressures of College English Test, or somewhat traditional teaching materials and approaches, current English teaching and learning in China are facing unavoidable problems and challenges. English language learners who are skillful in reading and writing may encounter various communication difficulties when their knowledge is insufficient and when they lack the necessary resources. In order to best convey their messages and remain in the conversation until their communication goal is reached, English as foreign language (EFL) learners need to employ communication strategies (CSs). Effective strategies used to overcome communication difficulties are of crucial importance for second language learners. College English students in China who are usually in large classes need to learn and use CSs to facilitate their communication because they do not have enough opportunities to use English in daily life. So it is urgent to incorporate communication strategy training into English classroom. In China, more and more Chinese researchers and English teachers have realized the significance of classroom implementation of communication strategies training. However, the study on communication strategies training is relatively weak.The present study examines the effects of communication strategy training on EFL learners'oral proficiency and on strategy use. It considers current patterns of communication strategy use, to what degree these strategies can be explicitly taught, and the extent to which strategy use can lead to improvements in oral communication ability. 60 Chinese college students as the subjects of the study participated in a 12-week course of English lessons using a communicative approach with communication strategy training. The strategy training group received CSs training, focusing on CS use, whereas the control group received only the normal communicative course, with no explicit training on CSs. Transcripts of the tests were made and then analyzed in terms of production rate and actual strategy use. An Oral Communication Strategy Inventory was introduced to elicit participants'communication strategy use for a self-report questionnaire procedure. These results were compared with participants'retrospective protocol data regarding their oral test performance. The findings confirmed that participants in the strategy training group significantly increase the frequencies of using achievement strategies and improved their oral proficiency test scores, whereas improvements in the control group were not significant.The results provided some pedagogical implications in English language teaching. Since communication strategies play an important role in improving EFL learners'oral proficiency, teachers and students should pay more attention to the communication strategy training.