Electronic Theses and Dissertation

Communication strategy is one of the most important components in foreign language learning because it assists students to surmount the communication difficulties. this study sought to examine the types and the frequent types of communication strategies used by efl students in their classroom speaking activities, namely discussion, presentation, and simulation. this study belongs to descriptive qualitative research. both observation and audio recording were conducted in this research to elicit the use of communication strategies by the students in overcoming their communication breakdowns. to collect the data, the researcher employed the observation sheet adapted from dornyei and scott (1997). the subjects of this research were the students from english department of syiah kuala university, aptly english teaching methodology class students. the results of this research reveal that the students employed 12 types of communication strategies which are: message abandonment, literal translation, code switching, foreignizing, approximation, word coinage, circumlucation, use of all-purpose word, self repair, appeal for assistance, mumbling, and fillers. meanwhile, the most frequent strategy utilized is self repair, followed by fillers and code switching, whereas the least frequently employed strategy was foreignizing. after conducting this research, raising awareness of employing communication strategies and incorporating them as part of speaking course are highly suggested forthe students and lecturer.