Communicative Techniques Used by EFL Learners to Accomplish Strategic Proficiency

Abstract

Effective communication is of paramount importance in all aspects of life. To achieve this, verbal and nonverbal techniques may be utilized. These techniques are called Communication Strategies (CSs). The primary objective of this study was to investigate the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies used by EFL (English Foreign Language) learners in the classroom to enhance their communication ability and to achieve strategic proficiency in their communication. It also explored which strategies are more effective or successful for accomplishing strategic proficiency in communication and for compensating the limited knowledge. Data came from two sources: questionnaires which were accomplished by the 20 student participants and 2 teacher participants and an observation administered by the researcher. The results showed that the most common communication strategies used are repetition and paraphrasing, while the less used strategies are literal translation and nonverbal strategies. The findings also confirmed that paraphrasing, repetition and replacing words are more effective than literal translation and nonverbal strategies. In addition, the correlation analysis revealed that the greater experience students have in learning English, the more strategies they use and the Pearson correlation approved that paraphrasing clearly correlated with years of learning English, r = .44, p = .05. Therefore, the communicative technique paraphrasing is used by the students who have greater experience in learning English confirming that using it is dependent on the years or the experience of learning the language.