Communication Strategies for Teachers and their Students in an EFL Setting

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the communication strategies used by EFL teachers and their students in an EFL setting (i.e. Jordan). The participants of the study included tenth grade English language teachers and their students' in selected schools in Irbid city, Jordan. Dörnyei and Scott's (1997) taxonomy was adapted in designing an observation checklist steered at eliciting teachers' actual teaching practices. A questionnaire was also developed on the grounds of the same taxonomy. The findings reported the following communication strategies were used: message reduction, approximation, circumlocution, code-mixing miming, self-repetition, and other-repetition, appealing for help, comprehension-check, own-accuracy check, asking for repetition, guessing, using of fillers and hesitation devices, guessing, and feigning understanding. Interestingly, the results showed that although teachers teach communication strategies, yet they are unaware of such strategies; they rather use them unconsciously. Provided that, the study concluded that congruence between the teachers' claims and students' perceptions regarding the actual teaching of such strategies is absent.