Abstract:
This study aims to investigate communication strategies (CSs) used by EFL learners during communication activities in English for Communication classrooms. This study also addresses the different communication strategies used by the high, intermediate, and low proficiency EFL learners. The data was collected from forty-five participants, the sophomore students majoring Tourism and Hospitality who enrolled in English for Communication course at the University of Phayao, Thailand. This mixed-method study utilized both the quantitative and the qualitative research instruments including the close-ended questionnaire, a semi-structured interview and a non-participant observation checklist. The forty-five participants were asked to complete the questionnaires. By means of the interviewing process, the six undergraduate EFL learners chosen by purposive sampling technique were categorized into three groups according to their English proficiency levels (advanced, intermediate, and low proficiency). Then, these six learners were observed and interviewed individually by using audio recordings.
When considering the mean rating of overall CSs use, most of the EFL learners occasionally use Time gaining ( = 79), followed by the Borrowing ( = 38), the Paraphrase ( = 29), and the Avoidance strategies ( = 22) respectively. Regarding to the observation results, the high proficiency learners tended to employ the Time-gaining strategy the most, the intermediate learners preferred to Borrowing strategies, and the low proficiency attempted to use Avoidance strategies most frequently. This study suggests that it is beneficial to apply communication strategies in English classrooms in order to promote EFL learners to improve their communication performances.