Communication Strategies Used By Vietnamese Students Cultural Studies Essay

Communication Strategies Used By Vietnamese Students heathen Studies EssayIn Vietnam, slope is now the approximately popular in let unfreeze-in and anyone who would wish well to integrate themslves into the global society and access the worlds knowlege to be sucessful in life is awargon that English competency is one the most important characteristics they postulate to have. English is seen every where in education, business, entertainment and heathen exchanges. Therefore, English is becoming the main dialogue lyric in the coun elbow grease.In light of sociolinguistics development, linguistic seekers have been paying more and more circumspection to the wideness of intercourse in its social context. The social factors in intercourse competency have been recognized and studied. These have impacted strongly on teaching and learning the voice talk. English learning is changing basic completelyy and positively. Learners of English do non learn English for the sake of le arning itself by treating grammatical knowledge primarily and separately but in the notion that it is more important to communicate effectively in the talking to by sending and receiving meanss, creating implication and negotiating meaning. These lead to the raceency toward which converse competency has tardily been enjoying learners great popularity. til now, the effectiveness of confabulation in the fanny verbiage is thus far both learners and instructors orphicest concern since learners who have already spent signifi fuck buoyt periods of cartridge holder on learning the voice parley to communicate as the main mark of their learning but then most of them encounter too some(prenominal) difficulties in communicating in the language.The learning contextIn Petrovietnam hands Training College, where I am working as a teacher of English, students, the subjects of the explore, be engineers and graduates who argon recruited to work in Petrovietnams projects and pl ants taking a circumscribed training course. They have graduated university with nearly equivalent English language education but have dis exchangeable English proficiency and ilk almost Vietnamese students, they have been trying to learn English in end of dialogue but find difficult to communicate in the language. At the college, English is taught as one of the main subjects to equip the students with the language that they would need to perform their pedigree. English speaking is attached special importance to and students ar expected to be good at talk in all circumstances after finishing the course. To serve these purposes, communicative language teaching Approach (CLT) is applied in teaching these students so that they prat particularly improve their communicative skills.The rationales and purpose of the query.Communication is interactive. So in pre- talk terms speaking course of instruction, students are usually apt(p) topics to discuss in crowds with the compa nion of their teacher before presenting their ideas to the clan. These activities aim to catch students involved in interpersonal communication or interaction to reanimate their overlook of practice in the EFL environment. These t strikes require the students big effort in trying to view the others and acquire themselves understood go for any means at their learning stage. consort to my observation, in most attitudes, students at this level of English proficiency await to struggle with expressing their sentiments because of their deficiency in linguistic proficiency, general knowledge of the given topics or confidence in using the language. Some of them exert themselves to the concluding to reach their communicative goals by un cognizantly or consciously using divers(prenominal) strategies to solve their particular communication problems and relatively convinced(p) in completing the given caper meanwhile the others just keep uncommunicative because they do not know what to do to deal with the problems they have during the conference and they fail to keep most of the talks termination on as they sine qua non to. So the purpose of this study is to identify the common communication strategies occupy by the students to enhance efficiency of communication when they deal with the task of group discussion and the communication scheme use of students of unlike English proficiency.The look into questions.The study is conducted to find out the answers to the fol down in the mouthing questionsWhat types of communication strategies are employ by Vietnamese students in English speaking class to compensate for their breakd consumes in communication and to enhance communicative effectiveness in base group discussion?Do students of different English proficiency employ communication strategies differently?Definitions of key scathe.The term communication strategies is simply earn as methods or proficiencys that language users use to dish up themse lves overcome problems occuring during communication to achieve communicative competenceLITERATURE REVIEWCommunicative competenceThe main goal of any language learners is to achieve communicative competence to get the best communication proficiency. According to Canale and gallant (1980), to attain communicative competence, learners need to gain the following perfect knowledgeGrammatical competence which is link to the language knowledge ( interchanges and grammar rules) itself.Sociolinguistic competence which is concerned to the strength to use and to interpret the utterances appropriately in different sociolinguistic communication situations.Discourse competence is the ability to combine grammatical forms and meanings to achieve a unified spoken or written textStrategic competence is the ability of using verbal and non-verbal communication strategies to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to limiting conditions in actual communication or to substandard competence in one or more of the other areas of communicative competence and to enhance the effectiveness of communicationAmong the four components that make up communicative competence, strategic competence is the likes ofly relating to EFL learners most because of the problems they comm alin concert run into in communication and the communication strategies they usually employ to solve the problems. These strategies are considered extremely important in negotiating meaning where either linguistic structures or sociolinguistic rules are not shared amidst a endorse language learner and a speaker of the scratch language (OMalley Chamot, 1990, p.43). Canale Swain (1980) once confirm that good strategic competence can help leanres with limiting L2 skills evade communication breakdowns.Communication strategies more enquiryers have conducted interrogation or studies on communication strategies so far. Consequently, each of them in their own view states different definitions and classifications of communication strategies.Definitions of communication strategiesWhat happens if contacts do not understand each other because of their limited language resources? Can they keep their conversation going on when they can not make themselves understood? Cohen (1990, p.56) believes that a major trait of successful speakers is that they use strategies to keep the conversation going on. They use communication strategies.Tarone (1980, p. 419) describes communication dodging as a joint attempt of cardinal interlocutors to agree on meaning in situations where prerequisite meaning structures are not shared. Communication strategies, to Tarones interactional view, are socially-motivated strategies which are used by more than one interlocutors to solve the problems of mutual lack of understanding by negotiating meanings.A communication scheme is simply delimitate by Corder (1977 as cited in Bialystok, 1990) as a systematic technique utilise by a speaker to express his meaning whe n looking at up with some difficulty.According to Faerch and Kasper (1983 as cited in Bialystok, 1990) communication strategies are potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal. More relating to forms of discourse, communication strategies in this definition are psychologically-motivated strategies which are related to mental plans of each interlocutor implemented in response to the problems of expression.Different authors define communication strategies differently. However , most of the definitions show the purpose of communication strategies which is to deal with the problems that the language users face up to when communicating by employing appropriate techniques.Classifications of Communication strategies.In the research on communication strategies, Dornyei, Faerch and Kasper and Tarone introduced their own classifications of communication strategies and their classifications.Dornyei (19 95 as cited in Brown, 2000) shows two branches of strategies negative and positive.Avoidence strategies (negative) topic turning a counseling and essence abandonmentCompensatory strategies (positive) circumlocution, approximation,use of all purpose manner of speaking, intelligence information coinage, prefabricated patterns, non-linguistic note, misprint interlingual rendition, foreignizing, recruit switch, appeal for help, stalling or time-gaining strategies.Faerch and Kasper (1983) banish communication strategies in to two main categories with their subcategories escape behavior reducing strategiesFormal reduction phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical.Function reduction reduction of speech art modality, reduction of propositional contextAchievement behavior compensatory strategies. inscribe switchingInterlingual transfer generalization, paraphrasing, word coinage, restructuring.Cooperative strategiesNon-linguistic strategiesHowever, Tarones typology of cons cious communication strategies (1977 as cited in Bialystok, 1990) seems to be simpler. Tarone classifies communication strategies into the following categoriesAvoidance topic avoidance and message abandonmentPara set phrase approximation, word coinage, circumlocution. certified transfer literal translation, language switchAppeal for assistanceMimePrior research embed that all language users used communication strategies consciously or unconsciously. Bialystok observes that communication strategies should be classified according to different cognitive processes and should be seen as a process of language use. I agrees with her at this height because of the fact that as language users, we all know that communication breakdowns whitethorn occur with anyone at any time during a conversation and when these problems happen, we all try some ways to get out of the douse by using some techniques called communication strategies.Besides, Bialystok insists that communicative strategies are used by language user in both L1 and L2, in this view, communicative strategies only reflect the way in which the language processing system extends and adapts to the demands of communication (Lee, 2004).In fact, the communication dodge use occurs during communicating consciously or unconsciously. However, learning and using a language are activities related to cognitive processes so when language learners use the language and the breakdowns come, they are aware of what situation they are in and consciously bet of an escape by employing different negative or positive strategies solve the problems like avoiding talking some the topic or concept that they do not know much, going away the utterance unfinished, using many talking to to describe , creating new word or switch to their mother tongue when they cannot find the right words to use and et ceteras. So, what exactly do learners do in each communication strategy?In this paper, I would like to focus on the simpler classification , Tarones typology of conscious communication strategies but in comparison with the other two of Dornyei and Faerch and Kasper .Avoidance strategiesBoth Dornyei and Tarone define avoidance strategies in the same way by mainly referring to two substrategiesMessage abandonment strategy which is used by learners when they encounters language difficulties. To deal with these unpleasant situations, learners tend to leave their utterance unfinished. melodic theme avoidance is another strategy learners use when they lack of or stop necessary linguistic knowledge to express their thoughts on the topic. Their language difficulties may related to vocabulary or grammar rules that they do not know or remember. To overcome them, learners keep way from talking about the topic.In my last of teaching, students of very low proficiency usually use these strategies because of their serious deficiency for the target language instead of using the strategies called compensatory strategies in Dornyeis or Faerch and Kaspers classifications or paraphrase and conscious transfer strategies as Tarone mentions in her typology of conscious communication strategies.ParaphraseIncluding circumlocution, word coinage and approximation which Faerch and Kasper suggest can grow learning as wellCircumlocution strategyBialystok competes that circumlocution strategy in fact is paraphrasing strategy. In terms of linguistic, the conception of the two strategies are very similar. Both strategies help learners make good use of simpler language or structures they have at their learning stage to convey their thoughts that need more complicated vocabulary and grammar rules to express.Dornyei states that circumlocution is the strategy used by learners when they motive to describe something that cannot find the exact word or phrase to use by paraphrasing it. Doing so, they use more words to describe a word in the hope that the listeners can get what they mean by themselves.Approximation strategyDornyei and Taroneideas meet each other when they name the strategy approximation which Tiono and Sylvia (2004) found to be used the most by students with low communication apprehension and high proficiency in speaking class in Petra Christian University in Surabaya, Indonesia to compensate their failure in retrieving the lexical items they have learned or their deficiency in vocabulary when they are asked to retell a pictorial stories. In the strategy, learners appear to be confident and willing to make mistakes by using an alternative or similar lexical term which they know that is not correct to illustrate the meaning of another word or phrase they aim to refer to. By doing this learners try to make themselves understood by using their limiting vocabulary. record coinage is another compensatory strategy that learners use when they lack of vocabulary. In this strategy they make up a target language word which is base on the morphological rules that they know well. For example they know w ell that thespian is a person who works so they create cooker (a person who cooks) from the verb cook.Conscious transfer strategiesLiteral translation strategy is usually used when the language users share their branch language or background. Learners translate a word or an idiom or even a structure from their commencement language into that of the target language. In my learning context, learners use literal translation mostly when they have difficulties with finding correct collocations for a word. In this cause they tend to translate word for word from another language. For example deep coffee ( which is not stated in vocabulary) for strong coffee. However, relating to translating a structure from learners first language, Faerch and Kasper name the strategy Restructuring in which learners reformulate the syntax of their utterance. voice communication switch strategy or code switch or code switching by Dornyei or Faerch and KasperIn this strategy, learners use lexical terms o r sentences from their first language when they cannot find the appropriate ones in the target language to express their thoughts (They insert some words or phrases from their first language). The strategy is also often employed by first language or background shared learners. This strategies may be expected to use the most by the subjects of this study for all of them are Vietnamese and in reality, it is also light-headed to see this in any of the English class in Vietnam.Appeal for assistanceExplicit request is the strategy where learners ask for help from the other people like more advanced learners or teacher by saying How do you say.? or What is this called.?.Referring to dictionary strategy is made use by learners when they need the correct words or structuresMine or Non-verbal communicative strategy also what Dornyei calls non-linguistic signal or Non-linguistic strategy by Faerch and Kasper. In this strategy, learners use non-verbal language like gestures, facial expressi on or even imitating sounds to express meanings.Mine and message abandonment seem to be coi in Faerch and Kasper in terms of learning. They think that these two strategies cannot help learners with their learning. But as a teacher I share Tarones opinion that in some extent, by using these two strategies, the speaker can get help from the listener to find the appropriate or correct word or structure to express what he or she wants to say. In both teaching and learning context, mine and message abandonment can be positive signals from the learners to interact with their teacher so that they can be taught event while communicating.The review of related studiesMany studies and research have been done so far on communication strategies and their findings showed that almost every strategy were used by learners. However what strategies employed were contingent a lot on the task given because different problems would renegade depending on different types of task, one -way task or two- way one (Mei Nathalang, 2010). So that the task requires learners different effort and strategies to solve the problems.It is easy to understand this because less interactive activities exist in one -way task like story telling while two- way task like role dallying or discussing includes mostly interaction. To deal with one-way task, learners tend to use paraphrase, restructuring and message abandonment since these strategies helps them to make clear the meanings as they try to ensure the listeners comprehension. Whereas to deal with interactive task like doing role play or discussing, learners need to make special effort to negotiate to get communication goals so they cannot simply employ avoidance strategies if they still want their conversation to continue and reach a mutual agreement on what they exactly mean. This agrees with the finding of Dobao Martinezs study of Negotiating Meaning in Interaction between English and Spanish Speakers via Communicative Strategies. The finding revealed that in interaction, when linguistic problems arose, intermediate or advanced EFL learners and their interlocutors (who were English native speakers or other EFL learners of their level) worked together to find solution by coordinating their use of CS, negotiating meanings to reach a mutual agreement on the learners originally intended meaning.Prior research also showed that the numbers of strategies used by learners were not influenced by their target language proficiency (Ting Phan, 2008). However, concerning to only the numbers of strategies used by learners is not enough in terms of language teaching and learning. Fortunately, the depart found in Kwoks study of communication strategies used by Hong kong students in underage group discussion (1987) revealed that students were able to make good use of different communication strategies in discussion to make their communication more effective. Moreover, the result also showed that the more the students mastered the com munication strategies, the much better they could do in small group discussion.Althought Bialystok believes that we should teach learners language rather than strategy but as a teacher I do argue in favour of implication about teaching strategies to learners from studies of Manchn (1999) and Faucette (2001). In my learning context, the class with both high and low proficiency learners is common. So it is not difficult to recognize types of strategies that different learners use when the language problems arise and the effectiveness of strategy use that the learners achieve in communication thought what is seen in the learning context can be subjectively discover and assessed. So, the study is hopefully an opportunity to confirm the phenomenon through its findings.SHORT conclusionThe fact is that learners can frequently run into communication difficulties because of varied reasons related to language problems and all of them find some ways to escape from the trouble they got in. Th ose ways are called communication strategies. Looking back at the studies and research that have been done on communication strategies so far, some world-shattering pedagogical implication have been recognized. That is communication strategy use can promote learners communicative competence or the confirmation that employing appropriate strategies can enhance communication effectiveness and communication strategy use is teachable. So, what types of communication strategies that can help learners increase communication efficacy should be considered mainly in this paper in the hope that more useful pedagogic implication closely involved English teaching will be found as reference for language teachers to deal better with their job as well as to help their students improve their learning.