Exploring the Use of Communication Strategies and Task Types in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

The study in hand attempts to explore the relationship between the communication strategies use and the implementation of different task types in EFL classrooms. It aims at investigating the different communication strategies used by EFL learners as tools to overcome their communication breakdowns and enhance their oral communication while performing classroom tasks. Thus, it is hypothesized that if EFL learners are exposed to different task types in classrooms, they may use various Communication Strategies. The dissertation is divided into two foremost parts; a theoretical one in which issues in connection with task types and communication strategies are discussed in the two first chapters; and the third one, which shows the practical part, exposed the findings yielded from the research tools. Hence, the mixedapproach method was used throughout adopting the Stimulated Recall Interview that was addressed to thirty out of thirty four (30/34) Upper-Intermediate level learners at Royal School-Jijel. Furthermore, a questionnaire was administered to all the teachers (18/18) at the same school in order to figure out their attitudes towards the implementation of various task types’ effect on the communication strategies use. All in all, the obtained findings revealed that the more EFL learners are exposed to different types of tasks, the more communication strategies they may use. Furthermore, the study reveals that the frequency of using communication strategies is strongly aligned with the variety of the used task’s type in EFL classroom. On the light of the findings, some pedagogical recommendations and suggestions for further research are proposed by the end of the dissertation.