Date of Award
5-2010
Thesis Type
Masters
Document Type
Dissertation
Divisions
Faculty of Languages and Linguistics
Department
Department of English Language
Institution
Universiti Malaya
Abstract
Arab and Iranian students must communicate in English in Malaysia but due to their lack of proficiency they tend to use communication strategies (CS) to overcome problems they encounter while communicating in English. According to Corder (1977) CSs are systematic techniques employed by speakers to facilitate communication during conversations. The aim of this study is to investigate the type and frequency of the CSs high and low proficiency Arab and Iranian postgraduate students with differing linguistic background (Arabic and Persian) use when speaking in English with each other. To achieve the objective of the study 12 Arab and Iranian participants having high and low English proficiency were divided into three groups (high-high, low-low and high-low proficiency in English). Each group included 4 subjects whose conversations were audio-recorded for 6 hours in natural real time interaction in an informal setting. Results showed that lower proficiency level participants regardless of their ethnicity resorted to more CSs compared to the high proficiency participants. Literal translation was most frequently used by the low proficiency participants in both low-low and high-low groups while participants in the high-high group most frequently resorted to code-switching. Circumlocution was the most frequently used CSs by the high proficiency participants in the high-low group. Furthermore, the use of CSs is more dependent on the language proficiency of the participants rather than on their ethnicity. In other words ethnicity does not affect CSs used. It is hoped that this study sheds light on the nature and type of CSs used by language learners in learning of English as a second or foreign language and facilitates conscious language teaching of a wide range of CSs.
Additional Information
Dissertation (M.A.) – Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya, 2010.
Recommended Citation
Shahban, Elham, "Communication strategies in social interaction between Arab and Iranian postgraduate students." (2010). Student Works (2010-2019). 111.
https://knova.um.edu.my/student_works_2010s/111
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
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