Communication strategies used by EFL students in classroom speaking activities

Communication strategy is one of the most important components in foreign language learning because it assists students to surmount communication difficulties. This study seeks to examine (frequent) types of communication strategies used by EFL students in classroom speaking activities: Discussion, Presentation, and Simulation. This is a mixed-method investigation since it represents research that involves collecting, analysing, and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data. The researchers used an observation sheet to observe students’ communication strategies in three different classroom speaking activities. The subjects of this study, selected by using purposive sampling, were 20 undergraduate students who studied a content course at an English Department. The results of this study reveal that the students employed 12 types of communication strategies. These are: message abandonment, literal translation, code-switching, foreignizing, approximation, word coinage, circumlocution, use of the all-purpose word, self-repair, appeal for assistance, mumbling, and fillers. The most frequent strategy utilized is self-repair (36.2%), followed by fillers (28.5%) and code-switching (11.8%), whereas the least frequent employed strategy is foreignizing (0.4%). It is recommended that lecturers train students to use communication strategies and integrate them as part of speaking activities in all content courses.