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English Language Learners’ Attitudes toward the Effectiveness of Communicative Strategies to Develop Their Speaking Skill

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The present study aims at finding out English language learners’ attitudes toward the communicative strategies that are applied in the classroom and thus discover the effectiveness of these strategies so as to improve the learners’ linguistic communicative competence. The aim is achieved by the following null hypothesis which states that English instructors have lacks in teaching and improving the communicative strategies so that the learners have no awareness about the best means to select among these strategies so as to improve their English language main skills generally and speaking skill in particular. The study is limited to the instructors and the students of the second stage of English language department / college of Education / Salahaddin University –Erbil for the academic year 2018-2019. Results show that there is no statistically significance differences among the students concerning the applied communicative strategies but they have positive attitudes towards them. Based on the above result, some conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for future research have been put forward.
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1 Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities (2020) 27 (1) 19-1
1
ISSN: 1817-6798 (Print)
Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities
available online at: http://www.jtuh.tu.edu.iq
Dr.Parween Shawkat
Kawther
College of Education
English Language Department
Salahaddin University/ Kurdistan Region-
Iraq
Email :parweensh@yahoo.com
Keywords:
communicative strategies
communicative competence
conversation
A R T I C L E I N F O
Article history:
Received 3 Dec. 2019
Accepted 17 Dec 2019
Available online 26 Jan 2020
Email: adxxx@tu.edu.iq
Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities
Journal of Tikrit University for
Humanities
English Language Learners’
Attitudes toward the
Effectiveness of Communicative
Strategies to Develop Their
Speaking Skill
A B S T R A C T
The present study aims at finding out English language
learners’ attitudes toward the communicative strategies that are
applied in the classroom and thus discover the effectiveness of
these strategies so as to improve the learners’ linguistic
communicative competence. The aim is achieved by the
following null hypothesis which states that English instructors
have lacks in teaching and improving the communicative
strategies so that the learners have no awareness about the best
means to select among these strategies so as to improve their
English language main skills generally and speaking skill in
particular. The study is limited to the instructors and the
students of the second stage of English language department /
college of Education / Salahaddin University Erbil for the
academic year 2018-2019. Results show that there is no
statistically significance differences among the students
concerning the applied communicative strategies but they have
positive attitudes towards them. Based on the above result,
some conclusions, recommendations and suggestions for future
research have been put forward.
© 2020 JTUH, College of Education for Human Sciences, Tikrit University
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.27.1.2020.21
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2
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  
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
Chapter One: Introduction
1.1
Statement of the Problem
Language is a system which is important to express one's ideas and thoughts
and communicate with others. It is our gift for human beings from our creator
Almighty Allah. Most of the English language instructors adopt the communicative
strategies with the learners so as to enable them to acquire the communicative
competence and be able to use English language properly and fluently. The learners
of English language department at the college of education appear to have
problems of communicating in English for certain reasons such as the deficiency in
the use of appropriate communication strategies in speaking context. The
communicative strategies that are applied for teaching English Language at English
departments have some lacks and they seem to be ineffective to improve the
learners’ communicative performance; therefore they can’t acquire the ability to
use the language communicatively. English language is the most dominated
language nowadays and both oral and written English skills are necessary and
required around the world; therefore to many of learners in English language
departments, speaking English seems to be a very challenging task. Since the aim
of English language departments is not only to develop knowledge of grammar,
3
vocabulary and written skills but also to teach oral English skills specially the
learners in these departments are going to be English language teachers in the high
schools. Most of the learners have lacks concerning the selection of the suitable
words or phrases when they speak English. Most of them are not aware of the
communicative strategies that help him to overcome his errors in speaking although
they are using them through the context of conversation. They know grammar and
vocabulary but they can’t use this linguistic competence in communication.
1.2
Aims of the Study
The current study tries to achieve the following aims:
1. Exploring the attitudes of the EL learners concerning the effectiveness of the
applied communicative language strategies in improving their speaking skills.
2. Investigating the effects of the communicative strategies to modify and
improve the students’ communicative performance in daily classroom activities.
3. Identifying the communicative strategies that English instructors prefer to
apply in their classes for enhancing the learners’ speaking skills.
4. Assessing the learners’ speaking abilities and their abilities to communicate by
using English language fluently and accurately.
1.3 Hypotheses of the Study
The researcher has set the following hypotheses:
1. The communicative strategies that are applied for teaching English language
are not effective enough to improve the learners’ speaking skill.
2. The instructors have lacks concerning the application of the communicative
strategies in the classroom.
4
3. The learners’ attitudes are negative in the process of selection the best
communicative strategy through a conversation which makes them unable to
have the aptitude in certain situation.
1.4 Limits of the Study
1. The study is limited to the instructors and the students of the second stage
of English language department / College of Education / Salahaddin
University Erbil for the academic year 2018-2019.
1.5 Definitions of Basic Terms
1.5.1 Communicative language Teaching
1. Savignon (2002, 1) writes that “Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) refers to both processes and goals in classroom learning” and
that “the central theoretical concept in CLT is communicative
competence”.
2. Brown (2007, 378) states that CLT is “an approach to language
teaching methodology that emphasizes authenticity, interaction,
student-centered learning, task based activities, and communication
for the real world, meaningful purposes” .
3. Hymes (1972, 13) confirms that “Communicative competence should
be viewed as “the overall underlying knowledge and ability for
language which the speaker-listener possesses”.
1.5.2 Conscious Communication Strategies
1. Tarone (1977, 195) states that “Conscious communication strategies
are used by an individual to overcome the crisis which occurs when
language structures are inadequate to convey the individual’s
thought”.
5
2. Corder, (1981, 103) defines communicative strategies CS as “a
systematic technique employed by a speaker to express his (or her)
meaning when faced with some difficulty”.
3. Færch and Kasper (1983, 36) define Communicative strategies as“
potential conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents
itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal”.
Chapter Two: Theoretical Background
2.1 An Overview of Communication Strategies
Sleinker in 1972 was the first who presented the term communicative
strategies CS as one of the main processes that has the effect on learning and
developing the second language. This term was considered to be essential in
the field of learning the second language but it wasn’t discussed and
researched in details. In the same year Savignon indicated the importance of
CS and she referred to this as copying strategies and how they play a great
role as a component of language teaching and training. Then other
researchers such as Dörnyei and Scott (1997), Færch and Kasper (1983),
Tarone (1980) and Nakatani (2010 ) debated that including communication
strategies in any communication process not only solves learners’
communication problems, but also supports the learner’s interaction in
target language , which modifies and increases the learners’ oral
proficiency. Tarone in 1977 was the first researcher who investigated
through an empirical study for the first time about more details of using the
CS in the communication with presentation of five new types of CSs which
were (avoidance, paraphrase, conscious transfer, appeal for assistance and
mime). This classification was considered the starting point in the field of
investigation about the nature of CSs. But in 1990 Bialystok’s work clarified
two important factors that are involved in the process of using CSs which
are: taking the psychological process of speech production as a basis for
6
studying CSs and teaching language structure which led other researchers to
explore the relationship between CSs and proficiency level of the learners.
Since then, great attention has been given to the instruction of CSs and the
techniques that are applied by the instructors to enhance using CSs by the
learners (Hmaid, 2014, 16-17).
2.2 Classification of Communicative Strategies
Communication strategies are considered the means to fill the gabs which
may occur in oral interaction. So strategies are recalled if the speaker of any
second language experiences a problem. The basic assumption concerning
the original taxonomies is based on that the speaker has two basic means to
deal with a problem faces him during a speech. These two means are either
avoiding the problem or trying to use the best what the speaker owns of
resources to pass his message clearly and appropriately. Generally CSs can
be classified as:
Reduction strategies: these strategies have influence on forming the goal of
the communicative process when the speaker may try to avoid pronouncing
certain words which imply particularly difficult sounds that also affect the
content of a message. Avoiding a topic is an essential strategy when the
speaker does not feel confident to talk about this topic. Even a strategy like
topic avoidance can play a role in developing strategic competence since
they are difficult to be discovered in actual verbal behavior, but they are
essential part of a language learner/user’s instinctive source.
Achievement strategies
The first distinction is appeared between strategies at the word or sentence
level and strategies at the discourse level. Using these strategies indicate the
speaker’s ability to find ways of expressing the meaning of a word when the
exact term is not available which are realized during the course of
interaction or trying to borrow words from the native language. These
7
achievement strategies at the discourse level are possibly regular and
endless, because they deal with the general ability to manage the interaction
which is a very complex and difficult process and contains not only strategic
and pragmatic skills, but sociolinguistic and sociocultural conventions as
well.
Cooperative strategies: this is a joint effort between two or more people.
Which means that the participants in a conversation share an attempt to
agree on a meaning in situations where they do not have the same levels of
knowledge and skill (Mariani, 2010, 24).
2.3 Factors Affecting the Learners’ Choice of Communicative
Strategies
English Language learner is required to implement a series of mental
assessment and planning steps before selection a particular strategy in
his/her communication. Certain concerns are necessary to be taken into
consideration when the learner wants to involve in a communicative
situation such as: when and where the communication takes place, what the
problem is, what is the nature of the topic and who participates in the
communication. There are many factors affecting the use of communicative
strategies, such as the learner’s level of language proficiency, the learner’s
personality and communicative experience, a learner’s attitude towards
communicative strategies, the topic source, and the communication
situation. These factors can be categorized into three aspects: learners,
learning context and communicative context.
1. Learners
The learners’ attitudes, level of language proficiency and their personalities
may have some impact on the use of communicative strategies. Learners’
attitudes towards a particular strategy affect the use of it. This means that
the positive attitude certainly brings high frequency of using it.
8
Communicative strategies such as cooperative, L1-based strategy and
nonverbal are actively used if the learners’ attitudes towards them are
positive (Wei, 2011 , 29).
2. Learning situation
The traditional teaching methods that are applied in the class and the
inadequacy of strategic competence can affect the learner’s ability to use the
suitable strategies; therefore English language instructor should be able to
select the suitable method for teaching that creates and improves the
learners’ communicative competence by increasing the daily communicative
activities in the class. Communication context also has a great role
concerning the learner’s preference for a specific communicative strategy.
The learner should have the communicative experiences that enable him to
determine and assess his communicative strategy according to the situation
that he needs this strategy to enhance his speech and select the suitable
language style whether this communication is with his teacher or with a
friend. The learners who have good knowledge about their first language
may be able to select the strategies differently from those who are less in
their knowledge because the rich knowledge learners are more successful to
know which strategy fits the gab that appears in his speech. It is affirmed
that each of the factors is not able to determine independently the choice of
communicative strategies but the interaction of the factors together leads to
choosing the suitable communicative strategies by the learners (Ibid.30).
9
Chapter Three: Procedures
1.3.1 The Participants
The participants of the study are the instructors and the students of the second
stage of English language department / college of Education / Salahaddin
University Erbil for the academic year 2018-2019. In order to reach an accurate
data the selection process of the sample is done randomly according to the whole
population of the students which is 80 so the researcher selected 20% of the whole
society. The sample includes 16 students that is suitable scientific percentage for
the aims of the study. While the teachers’ sample includes four teachers who are
specialized in teaching English language communication subject which is
considered one of the basic subjects that is taught in this stage. See Table -1-
Table 1: Description of the participants
Male 8
Female 8
19-20
18-19
8
8
This group of students is selected for certain reasons. Firstly they have different
levels in English language since the researcher herself has taught them English
language communication subject during the first term and there are a lot of
individual differences among them that make them a suitable sample for
investigation and gathering data. Some of them showed high levels in trying to
improve the main skills of English language. Secondly, they have the desire and to
improve themselves in speaking skill since they realize that they have some lacks in
vocabulary and grammar which appear clearly in their daily communication.
10
1.3. 2 The Instruments
The following instruments are applied for gathering data:
1. A questionnaire for English language learners since the application of
this kind of instruments is useful and practical in gathering data as
Sataya, (2012, 273) states “A questionnaire is the main means of
collecting quantitative primary data”.
2. Interviews with English language instructors. According to Burns
(1999, 118) contends that “Interviews are a popular and widely used
means of collecting qualitative data.”
3. Construction an oral test for the learners so as to assess their speaking
skill and the sub-skills that are related to this skill such as the ability to
recognize and pronounce the sounds, the ability to recognize and use
the stress patterns and the ability to hear and produce the melody of
the tunes (the rise and fall of the voice).
4. The Analysis of the Results:
Certain findings have been achieved depending on the aims that the researcher has
presented during the study which are exploring the attitudes of the EL learners
concerning the effectiveness of applying communicative language strategies in
improving their speaking skills. Investigating the effects of the CS to modify and
improve the students’ communicative performance in daily classroom activities.
Identifying the CS that English instructors prefer to apply in their classes for
enhancing the learnersspeaking skills. And assessing English language learners’
speaking abilities to communicate fluently and accurately.
11
4.1Results of the Students’ Questionnaire
The researcher has applied a questionnaire for the students which includes 27 items
investigating about their opinions concerning the methods and the techniques that
are applied by EL instructor so as to improve and enhance their abilities to acquire
the communicative competence and the ability to use and select the suitable
communicative strategies through conversation to overcome the breakdowns that
face the learner . Through the application of the statistical formula to percentile
,arithmetic mean and the standard deviation, it has been found that 23 variables
have scored high standard deviation, while 4 variables has scored middle standard
deviation which means that a significantly greater percentage of the learners in the
second grade students have positive attitudes towards being able to master English
speaking skill and to employ a high use of communicative strategies to convey a
message to his listener in a conversation. Also these scores indicate that the
communicative teaching methods supply the opportunities for the leaners to acquire
the communicative competence and communicative performance in an effective
way. See Table -2-
Table 2 : Results of the Students’ Questionnaire
ID
Variable
Mean
Std.
Deviation
%
level
1
Learning English language is important in my life
and I’m interested to learn it.
4
3.9
87
H
2
I need to learn English language to express my
ideas and communicate with my classmates.
3
3.8
62
H
3
English communication subject is grammar-
focused.
2
0.46
56
H
12
ID
Variable
Mean
Std.
Deviation
%
level
5
I exchange my ideas with my classmates using
expressions from communication subject.
3.8
1.57
44
H
6
Group working is applied in communication
lectures.
3
0.53
44
H
7
I understand all the dialogues and activities of
listening that are available in the course.
3.43
0.46
50
H
8
Our teacher sometimes uses Kurdish language in
the lecture.
2.25
0.33
50
H
9
I can write essays, compositions and emails
grammatically and without mistakes.
2.00
0.68
56
H
10
Audio-visual aids are used in communication
course such as videos pictures or CDs.
3
0.63
62
H
11
Skills and tasks are introduced in a slow and
manageable manner till you build confidence in
yourself while mastering a skill (scaffolding).
3
0.6
62
H
12
The activities in communication lecture allow
interaction with my classmates.
2.88
0.730
56
H
13
The teacher always activates my prior exciting
knowledge of any topic is discussed in the class.
3.12
0.816
37
H
14
through extended discussions I can learn English
language.
3.25
0.730
50
H
15
The situations of teaching dialogues sound natural
and real.
2.75
0.730
62
H
16
My English teachers correct my errors in class
3
0.966
50
H
13
17
Tasks are authentic which means close to real life
situations.
2.375
1.032
62
H
18
Speaking activities are developed to start
meaningful communication.
3
0.966
50
H
19
Activities are balanced between individual
response, pair and group work
3
0.816
56
H
20
In English communication lessons there are
classroom conversations and discussions.
3.5
0.894
62
H
21
We work and talk in small groups in English
communication lessons.
1.93
1.4
56
M
22
We use songs and movies to learn English.
2
1.032
44
H
23
EL teacher uses visual materials such as pictures
and movies.
1,82
1.095
44
M
24
We do role-plays in speaking activity when you
put yourself into an imaginary situation! Imaginary
people .
2.125
0.894
44
H
25
We do translation exercises.
1.5
0.856
44
M
26
We do oral presentation in front of the class.
3
0.966
38
H
27
I depend to my native language to understand
English language in communication lecture.
2.36
0.966
78
M
4.2 Results Related to the Oral Test
It has been found that construction an oral test for the English language learners is a
great means to assess their speaking abilities and to explore the types of the
communicative strategies that the learners try to use when they face communicating
problems or when they try to fill the gabs that appear in their speech. The
14
researcher aimed to reach the reliable scores concerning the oral test; therefore a
grading rubric is developed for this purpose. The left column in the rubric lists the
different areas of language and conversation to be assessed, and the top row
provides scores for the extent to which each performance is achieved include poor,
acceptable and excellent performance. The rubric also includes the objective behind
the test, the student’s name and instructions about how to account the scores. Allen
(2014,1) asserts that rubrics can provide the criteria for assessing students'
production or learning behavior, such as essays, reports, portfolios, oral
presentations, performances, and group works. Through the application of the
statistical formula to percentile, arithmetic mean and the standard deviation, it has
been found most of the students have accepted levels in using grammatical,
meaningful, accurate and fluent phrases and sentences in their conversation. See
Table (4) and Table (5)
Table 4: The Rubric Form for the Oral Test
Objective of the test: The student is required to communicate in English using
communicative strategies
Date :
Student’s Name :
10 Marks for the whole Test
5 marks for each part of the performance
Performance Area
Poor
1
Acceptable
2
Excellent
3
Comments
Grammatical mistakes in
3
2
0
15
the performance
Vocabulary mistakes in
the performance
3
2
1
Pronunciation mistakes in
the performance
4
2
1
Accuracy mistakes in the
performance
4
2
1
Fluency mistakes in the
performance
4
2
1
Instruction: Put a check mark in the appropriate box for each row.
Excellent = Performance is above the expectations stated in the outcomes.
Acceptable = Performance meets the expectations stated in the outcomes.
Poor = Performance does not meet the expectations stated in the outcomes
16
Table 5: The Results of the Oral Test
Domains
N
Mean
Std.
Deviation
%
Level
Grammar
16
6
2.0976
60
H
Vocabulary
16
8.87
1.060
88
H
Pronunciation
16
4.5
1.290
50
H
Speaking
Accuracy
16
5
1.751
50
H
Speaking
Fluency
16
3.93
1.1832
40
H
4.3 Results Related to Teachers’ Interviews
Fox (2009, 9) states that “Face-to-face or personal interviews are very labour
intensive, but can be the best way of collecting high quality data. Face-to-face
interviews are preferable when the subject matter is very sensitive, if the questions
are very complex or if the interview is likely to be lengthy”. Interviews have been
scheduled with four of English communication subject instructors and two
questions are asked which are:
1. What are the techniques that are applied in the class so as to teach the
increase the learners’ abilities to select the suitable communicative
strategies through a conversation?
2. What are the challenges or the difficulties that face the students in
learning the communicative strategies?
17
It has been found through the interviews that the instructors use the Communicative
Approach in their classes and they try to integrate English four main skills.
Concerning the communicative strategies, the instructors focus on achievement
strategies more than the other types of strategies. Techniques such group working,
group debates and presentation of thematically projects through seminars.
5.1 Conclusion
It has been concluded that application of traditional methods of teaching English
language and teaching communication course cannot be useful any more since the
learners are in need to have abilities for communication; therefore most of the
students have positive attitudes towards using certain types of communicative
strategies so as to have fluent conversation. The most significant point is that the
learners try to be confident enough when they are involved in communication in
any real-life context. To reach such output English language instructors are
required to adopt different communicative teaching methods of teaching English
language beside traditional methods of language teaching so that they can motivate
their learners to comprehend the different types of communicative strategies and
being able to choose spontaneously the suitable communicative strategy during the
communication.
18
References
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Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford U
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Fox,Nick.(2009). Using Interviews in a Research Project. The NIHR Research
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Mariani, Luciao, (2010). Communicative Strategies: Teaching and Learning how to
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www.learningbaths.org
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Savignon, S. (2002). Interpreting communicative language teaching. New Haven:
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Book
Full-text available
What do you do when you need to express the meaning of a word that you don’t know in a foreign language? How do you start and close a conversation, and how do you keep it going? What can you do if you are not sure about what to say in an unfamiliar situation? Communication strategies is a book about the verbal and non-verbal ways and means that learners and users of a second or foreign language can employ when they have to face problems due to gaps in their linguistic, communicative or intercultural competence. Strategies also enable them to deal with uncertainty in personal and intercultural contacts and to increase their autonomy in using languages. This version of "Communication strategies" is meant as a handbook for teachers, teacher trainers and educators, providing them with a sound methodological background. A collection of 30 practice activities, games and tasks for language learners and users is also available from the Author (luciano.mariani@iol.it), including photocopiable worksheets as well as freely downloadable recordings of native and non-native speakers of English.
Article
Sandra Joy Savignon is a professor in the Program in Linguistics and Applied Language Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. A past president of the American Association for Applied Linguistics and the founder and long-time director of the multidisciplinary doctoral program in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education at the University of Illinois, she has traveled widely in North and South America, Europe, and Asia, consulting and giving seminars on communicative language teaching. Her books include Communicative competence: theory and classroom practice, winner of the Modern Language Association of America Mildenberger Medal for an outstanding research publication in the field of second/foreign language teaching. Her most recent book is Interpreting communicative language teaching: contexts and concerns in teacher education. She and her husband Gabriel are the parents of three bilingual children, now grown with families of their own.
Cmmunication Strategies: A P sychological Analysis of Second -Language Use
  • E Bialystock
Bialystock, E.(1990).Cmmunication Strategies: A P sychological Analysis of Second -Language Use. Oxford: Baisl Blackwell.
Conscious communication strategies in interlanguage: A progress report
  • E Tarone