The Effect of Two Communication Strategy Training on Students’ Strategic Behavior

Abstract

This study examined the effect of communication strategy (CS) training on the strategic behavior of English foreign language (EFL) Egyptian learners. They were grouped into an experimental group (n = 51) who received the regular English course plus an extra eight-hour training on the use of two communication strategies (CSs), namely approximation and circumlocution and a control group (n = 38) which received the regular English course. During a seven-week extensive English course, as part of the Interchange Series, participants were explicitly trained to use approximation and circumlocution in order to overcome their lexical difficulties in written tasks. Students had a pre and a posttest during the first and the last weeks of their English course to determine whether the CS training program had an effect on their strategic behavior. The results showed that both groups resorted to avoidance more frequently than achievement strategies in the pretest. This behavior changed significantly by the experimental group in the posttest, where subjects resorted less to avoidance and more to achievement strategies. Conversely, the control group continued their strategic behavior, resorting to avoidance strategies more than achievement ones. The results showed that the change in the strategic behavior by the experimental group was statistically significant. Students became aware oftheir strategy use and more confident to use the target language regardless of their limited linguistic resources to overcome their lexical difficulties during writing tasks.