COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING DIFFICULTIES WHILE SPEAKING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The paper describes the types of communication strategies used by non-native English speakers to overcome communication difficulties. The essence of each of strategy has been revealed and practical examples of their application have been given. Definitions of communication strategies for learners of English as a foreign language have been generalized. The most widely spread typologies of communication strategies have been presented and characterized in the article – generalized classification by E. Tarone, C. Faerch, G. Kasper and G. Willems and classification by M. Celce-Murcia. All the strategies can be divided into two groups – avoidance or reduction strategies and achievement or compensation strategies. The former group includes topic avoidance and message abandonment and the latter group includes literal translation, language switch (to the native language, as a rule), foreignizing, approximation or generalization, word coinage, circumlocution, all-purpose words, self-correction or restructuring, appeal for help, stalling or time-gaining strategies.

In order to identify the most effective communication strategies used by those who study English as a foreign language and the frequency of their use, a special survey has been conducted at University of Malaysia among Arab and Chinese students studying English as a foreign language. The results of the study were summarized separately for students with the high level of language proficiency and with the low one, as this is the factor that influences students' choice of communication strategies. The same survey was conducted by us among Ukrainian students who study English as a foreign language at Khmelnytskyi National University in the specialties "Secondary education. English Language and Literature” and “Philology. Applied Linguistics” (106 students). When comparing the results of the survey of native Chinese and Arabic students and native Ukrainian students, it becomes obvious that the rating of strategies differs slightly, but not significantly. At the same time, it was noticed that in both cases, students with the high level of language proficiency use strategies of achievement or compensation more, and practically do not use strategies of avoidance or reduction, in contrast to students with low language proficiency.