Some pertinent oral communication strategies for EFL learning and teaching

The main purpose of this article is to suggest to educators three strategies used in the field of EFL teaching and learning such as avoidance, compensation and time gaining. Then, there is a recommendation to teach or not teach these strategies, or what strategies should be focused upon and what strategies should be introduced for discussion only.

SOME PERTINENT ORAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR EFL LEARNING

AND TEACHING

Truong Thi Thanh Nga1

1 An Giang University, VNU - HCM

Information:

Received: 16/01/2019

Accepted: 02/05/2019

Published: 11/2019

Keywords:

Communication strategies

(CSs), avoidance,

compensation, time gaining,

interlocutors

ABSTRACT

To communicate successfully in study and everyday conversations is very important Speakers or participants all want to be successful in exchanging ideas and getting an end result after the dialogue finishes There are several popular ways to maintain progress or end a conversation In this paper, some relevant strategies are addressed so that thestudents or users of English as a foreign language (EFL) know what they have done intentionally

or unintentionally through time The main purpose of this article is to suggest to educators three strategies used in the field of EFL teaching and learning such as avoidance, compensation and time gaining Then, there is a recommendation to teach or not teach these strategies, or what strategies should be focused upon and what strategies should be introduced for discussion only

1 INTRODUCTION

In the context of learning English in Vietnam

in recent times, especially students in remote

areasstudents of English nowadays usually start

learning it at a very early age, but it takes them

a long time to use the language successfully In

addition, they find it very hard to express

themselves in actual communication Therefore,

some relevant communication strategies (CSs)

should be considered to help learners

communicate their ideas effectively As Maleki

(2007) mentions, though learners of English are

equipped with enough language knowledge,

they need to reach a threshold to come to a real

communicative stage when they can speak out

naturally; thus communication strategy support

for learners is necessary

Communication success is required in both verbal and written activities in English in Vietnam, but emphasis is mostly on speaking

Language students are considered to reach the communicative threshold of proficiency when they can keep the conversation going and maintain their position in communicating contexts When people study a new language all they need to acquire is that they can express what they want to say and can be understood by others and get back the information from someone’s speeches or writing To obtain communicative skills in foreign languages, there are some gifted people who can make use

of their restricted language resources in combining with their own skills like body language, gestures, and facial expressions to achieve their communicative purposes

However, there are also strategies that most

EFL learners can apply through their life

experience or by practising and following some

communicative tactics This paper first reviews

definitions of communication strategies, then

presents three key communication strategies

and finally suggests that communications

strategies should be taught Three pertinent

strategies are avoidance, compensation and

time gaining These strategies accompany some

tactics which occur at the time of speaking such

as topic divergence, circumlocution and using

fillers and hesitation devices The paper first

reviews definitions of Communication

Strategies and then leads to a discussion about

whether communication strategies can be taught

or not and their role in EFL teaching

2 DEFINITION

Definitions about communication strategies

(CSs) have concerned many linguists In fact,

most linguists in the 1970s and 1980s have

concentrated on problem – solving when

talking about CSs For example, Tarone, Cohen

and Dumas (1976, p 5) see “CSs as learners’

systematic attempt to express or decode

meaning in the target language” In a different

perspective, Canale and Swain (1980) see CSs

as verbal and nonverbal strategies which

compensate for breakdowns in communication

due to performance variables or insufficient

competence in conversations Tarone (1977)

explains that conscious communication

strategies are used by an individual to overcome

the crisis which occurs when language

structures are insufficient to convey the

individual’s thought

According to Tarone’s new concept, CSs have

been seen as “relate to a mutual attempt of two

interlocutors to agree on the meaning in

situations where requisite meaning structures do

not seem to be shared” (1980, p 420) It is an

interaction perspective rather than

meaning-negotiation and repair mechanisms that involve

handling difficulties or breakdowns in communications Corder (1986) also views CSs

as speakers’ systematic techniques to express meaning when facing difficulty However, the broadest definition of CSs is Canale’s (1983) extended concept when he points out that CSs help improve communicative efficiency with various patterns of speech Therefore, definitions about CSs have been improved through time from problem-solving to meaning negotiation between interlocutors and finally come to enhancing the effectiveness of communication Among these linguists’

definitions, Corder’s idea about CSs as strategies at the time of the conversation to retain the interaction between the speakers, and then to make the conversation end smoothly, is the basic support of the article

3 STRATEGIES

3.1 Avoidance strategy

Avoidance strategy is mostly used either consciously or unintentionally by non-native speakers when they encounter linguistic problems although its accompanied tactics might not be taught or language learners encouraged to use them Indeed, people never want to hinder, to hide or avoid direct and active communication, but in some cases they have to because of “a mismatch between communicative intention and linguistic resources” (Varadi, 1992, p 437), and they want to survive and maintain the conversations

According to Dornyei (1995, p 66) “Language learners should say what they can and not what they want to” However, he also complicatedly adds one more variation on the slogan

“Language learners should be encouraged to say what they can, rather than retreat silently from what they can’t” Therefore, topic avoidance and replacement skills are indispensable because they could improve learners’ fluency Many linguists believe that avoidance strategy can be seen in some of its

subcategories or tactics such as topic avoidance,

message abandonment, or meaning replacement

(Brown, 2000; Corder, 1983; Dornyei & Scott,

1997; Færch & Kasper, 1983; Tarone, 1997;

Willems, 1987) For example, with message

abandonment, according to Dornyei (1997,

p.188) speakers ‘leaving a message unfinished

because of some language difficulty’ like in the

following monologue ‘It is a person er … who

is responsible for a house, for the block of

houses … I don’t know … [laughter].’

Moreover, sometimes learners have to reduce

the message intention or avoid the intended

topic because of their lack of linguistic

resources about the topic Brown (2000) also

contributes to this field with his example which

describes the attempts of learners when they are

in a shortage of grammatical or lexical

knowledge within a semantic category as in the

following conversation excerpt:

L: I lost my road

NS: You lost your road?

L: Uh … I lost I lost I got lost (p 128)

Therefore, avoidance strategy is also considered

a skill in communication that sometimes helps

EFL learners to survive and maintain their

position in conversations, and they do not give

up just as Corder (1983, p 19) concludes

“These strategies must not be regarded as

admission of failure,” but just maybe a way to

ta take advantage for time gain in

communication

3.2 Compensatory strategy

Compensation strategy is one of the popular

ways that language users even the native

speakers use in most situations to meet

conversational aims In fact, both speakers and

their interlocutors usually use this

communicative skill to get into understanding

each other or negotiation in meaning For

example, Kellerman, Ammerlaan, Bongaerts

and Poulisse (1990) see circumlocution just as

paraphrasing, explanation or description is necessary These linguists further give many instances to demonstrate what they state, as for some words EFL learners require but they do not know them exactly, they can express themselves in another way by describing or explaining in groups of words such as ‘figure

with three sides’ or ‘three angles’ for triangle,

or ‘ball with air in it’ or ‘ball in the air’ for

balloon The critics also emphasise the

description of the function of things that learners do not know the precise words forsuch

as the words moon and knife with the former

can be described in terms of location involved like ‘ it’s in the sky’ and the functional use for the later ‘you use it for cutting.’

Dornyei (1995), Dornyei and Scott (1997) consider circumlocution as exemplifying, illustrating or describing the properties of the target object or action For instance, Dornyei and Scott (1997, p 188) provide an example in which a learner says “the thing you open wine

bottles with” to refer to a corkscrew

Abdesslem (2004, p.3) contributes to the field with the explanation for the words ‘liquid paper’ by the phrase “white stuff for correcting words.” (p 3) In short, paraphrasing is used in most situations by language learners for the purpose of being mutually understood between interlocutors in communication, and for the

purpose of verbal conversational achievement

3.3 Time gaining strategy

To maintain and avoid communication breakdown, time gaining devices are also preferred tactics of many EFL learners In fact, some language academics believe that pause fillers do not belong to communication strategies For example, Tarone (1980) considers stalling under production or Færch and Kasper (1983) looked at time gaining as

‘temporal variables’ Whereas, many other researchers have appreciated the use of fillers and hesitation devices that consciously help

learners participating in conversations become

more fluent, or at least help prevent

breakdowns and keep the communication

channel open in the face of difficulties (Canale,

1983; Canale & Swain, 1980; Dornyei and

Scott, 1997; Ellis, 1985; Haastrup & Phillipson,

1983) Dornyei and Scott (1997) provide a list

of common words and phrases for filled pauses

and hesitations so that learners can consciously

use to gain time to keep conversations going on

in difficulties These fillers include “well,

actually, as a matter of fact, the thing is, you

know, okay, this is rather difficult to explain,

it’s a good question, or let me think, etc.,” (p

190) Therefore, pause fillers are also used by

speakers as a tactic to gain time to think of the

missing words or what to say next This time

gaining strategy by using pause fillers will help

learners retrieve their language resource

available in their head but do not appear

spontaneously

4 TEACHING COMMUNICATION

STRATEGIES

The issue of whether communication strategies

can be taught must be taken into account to see

the role that they have in the second language

classroom Indeed, it is a controversial issue

that poses a disagreement among researchers

Most linguists believe that these strategies have

already developed in learners’ first language

(L1) and now are naturally transferred to the

second language (L2) (Bongaerts & Poulisse,

1989; Bongaerts, Kellerman, & Bentlage, 1987;

Kellerman, Ammerlaan, Bongaerts, & Poulisse,

1990; Paribakht, 1985) Bialystok and

Kellerman (1987) point out that adult language

learners’ cognitive competence is already

developed including ‘repertoire of applicable

CSs at any of their levels of proficiency in L2

Kellerman (1991) also opposes teaching

compensatory strategies in the classroom

According to him, EFL students need only be

given just as much language as necessary, and

the strategies themselves emerge automatically through the process of practising the language

Canale and Swain (1980) are also the proponents on this side; they think that CSs would be acquired through real-life communications but not through the constraints

of language classroom practice

However, many other researchers support the need to teach communication strategies for the EFL learners so that they can apply these strategies in real life communication (Brooks, 1992; Chen, 1990; Færch & Kasper, 1983, 1986; Haastrup & Phillipson, 1983; Paribakht, 1986; Rost, 1994; Rost & Ross, 1991;

Savignon, 1972, 1983, 1990; Tarone, 1984;

Tarone and Yule, 1989; Willems, 1987)

Therefore, communication strategies that are provided widely and facilitated by the teachers

in language classrooms would give students more opportunities to succeed in communication Tarone (1984) and Willems (1987) cited in Dornyei (1995, p 62) state

‘There is also some evidence that students in classroom settings which offer more natural input (such as immersion classes) tend to develop a higher level of strategic competence than students in ordinary classrooms, who tend

to use only a limited number of mostly unsophisticated CSs.” Therefore, though in any context of learning and teaching EFL, learners should be equipped with enough language, especially useful languages from the stage learners need specific guided and control to free conversations

4.1 The role of communication in efl language classroom

It cannot be denied that most language teachers now want to directly address communication strategies in classrooms although this trend is still debated This proves that many people perceive that communicative competence is indispensable in language teaching If teachers

in classroom follow six procedures provided in

Dornyei, including:

Raising learner awareness about

the nature and communicative

potential of CSs, encouraging

students to be willing to take

risks and use CSs, providing L2

models of the use of certain

CSs, highlighting cross-cultural

differences in CSs use, teaching

CSs directly and providing

opportunities for practice in

strategy use

(1995, pp 63-64) then the communication strategies seem to be

advanced and promoted to enhance learners’

competence in communication Furthermore,

teachers can provide as many strategies as

possible during their teaching time or

interweave these strategies with their teaching

methods so that the students have a chance to

get used to communicative approaches For

instance, according to Dornyei (1995, pp

63-64) by “Raising learner awareness about the

nature and communicative potential of CSs”,

teachers help students feel more confidentwith

their available strategic repertoire, and they

would be willing to be risk-takers in most cases

when facing difficulties that may lead to

communicative breakdowns

4.2 Communication strategy application

Being equipped with communication strategies,

students can apply them flexibly in appropriate

situations as Oxford (1990, p 207) concludes:

Research shows that strategy training

which fully informs the learners (by

indicating why the strategy is useful,

how it can be transferred to different

tasks, and how learners can evaluate

the success of this strategy) is more

successful than training that does not

She means that learning strategy training should

be direct and informed so that students can apply them in conversations in class as well as

in real-life communication For example, Tarone and Yule (1989, cited in Dornyei, 1995, p.64) suggest giving cues or lists of words or phrases that learners can use for specific strategies such as, circumlocution with “certain basic core vocabulary and sentence structures to describe properties (e.g., shape, size, colour,

textile) and function: top side, bowl-shaped,

triangular, on the rim, circular, square.”

Dornyei and Scott (1997) also provide a list of phrases to mark for explanation or clarification such as it is a kind/sort of, the thing you use for

…, it’s what/ when you …, it’s something you do/ say when…, or ways used in cooperation with interlocutors to appeal for help (what do you call it/ someone who …, What is the word for…) If teachers insist on their communicative techniques and let the students have opportunities to practise, use and reinforce all communicative knowledge they provided to them so that the students can reach the automatic stage, then both the teachers and students may gain the goal of communication

A case study is in English for specific purposes (ESP), such as English for Tourism or Business English; for instance, Nina and Fiona (2010) provide useful language from one part of the lesson and then many situation exercises such

as role play or conversation buildings to practise in class so that students can learn and use the languages in context then apply later on

in their real working life, and teachers also feel satisfied with their role in class in helping learners acquire language skills Many other educators such as David, Jane & Shausn (2008); Cotton, Falvey & Simon (2010) also have the same ideas and approach as Nina and Fiona that language teachers should provide time for students practising communicative strategies found from each lesson during the whole course Learners can apply what they

learn following guideline formats, and then

spontaneously produce the language when they

get to their language threshold Therefore,

communication strategies should be taught

5 CONCLUSION

Success in communication is the aspiration of

teachers, most learners and users of a new

language Except those who are very advanced

like ‘near native’ speakers, EFL learners

usually have to struggle by, using all their effort

and time for their L2 deficiency to survive and

maintain conversations In fact, people use

various strategies depending on their

preference, capacity and situational contexts In

some unexpected cases, they have to apply

avoidance strategy at the expense of changing

their initial intended meanings or even abandon

the topic to keep the communication channel

open In other circumstances, learners make use

of their available language resources to get into

the point by going around the topic with

paraphrasing, description, or explanation

Furthermore, during conversation, if some key

words have been missed or forgotten, pause

fillers would be a good technique to get back

the information needed The first strategy of

topic avoidance may not be encouraged to

include in language classroom curricula but just

as an optional or a sub category because

learners may take advantage of using this

strategy to diverge to another topic to prolong

the communication time, and this may delay

their progress process/ procedure because it

promotes learners to change the intended topics

to get communicative success at the expense of

content purpose failure Otherwise, it can be

used as a supplement in combination with the

last two, compensatory and time gaining

strategies They are what the teachers should

mention in most of the teaching time even as

they can go along with content language

teaching There are of course more than three

communication strategies that have been

introduced in this paper such as using word coinage or asking for help from interlocutors, etc This is the learners’ duty to select or combine these strategies that can best enhance the effectiveness of their communicative capacity in real life through what they have already known or been equipped from language learning classroom, or learn from communicating with peers, or native interlocutors

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