策略13 Communication Strategies.docx

策略13 Communication Strategies.docx

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策略13CommunicationStrategies

CommunicationStrategies

Warm-upQuestions

1.DoyouoftencommunicatewithotherpeopleinEnglish?

2.AreyouafraidofmakingmistakesinspeakingEnglish?

3.Doyouoftendevelopyourcommunicativeskills?

How?

4.Doyouoftenusenon-verbalcommunication?

How?

5.What’sdifferencebetweenlinguisticskillsandcommunicativeskills?

I.Introduction

Istherean“idealspeaker”ofalanguage?

AsIknow,theidealspeakerisanabstraction.Evannativespeakersarenot“perfect,”andtheycanalsoproducefaultysentences.WhathappenwhenChineselearnersofEnglishtrytocommunicate?

Somemanagetoconveytheirmessageswell;othersstillfindthemselvesabandoningtheirideasinmid-sentence,avoidingcommunicationforfearofmakingmistakes,forlackofconfidence.Thistopicwillfocusontheseproblems,andhopeyougotowardsidealspeakers.Iwilldealwithcommunicationandcommunicationstrategies（CS）.Thetopicwillbedividedinto5sections.Inthefirstsections,Iamgoingtopresentthecategory,thedefinitionoftheCS.ThefollowingsectionsareconcernedwithclassificationandelaborationofCS,factorsaffectinglearners’useofCS,howtoimproveCS,andsummaryofthetopic.

What’scommunication?

Communicationreferstointeractionbetweenspeakersandlisteners,orwritersandreaders.AccordingtoMorrow（1981）,activitiesthataretrulycommunicativehave3features:

informationgap,choice,andfeedback.Aninformationgapexistswhenonepersoninanexchangeknowssomethingthattheotherpersondoesn’t.Feedbackindicatesthataspeakercanevaluatetheinformationhe/shereceivesfromthelistener.Ifthelistenerdoesnothaveanopportunitytoprovidethespeakerwithsuchfeedback,theexchangeisnotreallycommunicative.Furthermore,thecategoryof“communicativeactivities”comprisesarangeoffluencyactivitiessuchasproblem-solvingtasks,improvisations（doingsthonehasnotpreparedfor,owingtounexpectedsituation）,role-plays,andinterviews,whichprovideanopportunityforlearnerstousealltheirlanguageresourcesforfluencypractice.

Nowletusturnourattentiontocommunicationstrategies.Communicationstrategies,bydefinition,areconcernedwithL2production（vsreception）（Ellis,1985:

187）.Theterm‘CS’wasfirstcoinedbySelinker（1972）,inhispaperonInter-language（Ellis:

180）.Sincethen,therehasbeenasteadyincreaseofinterestinthelearner’scommunicationstrategies.Alargenumberofpapersandworksonithavebeencomeout.Whatisthedefinitionofcommunicationstrategies?

Severalresearchershavedefinedcommunicationstrategies.Beloware3-5definitionsthatwillserveasourframeworkforthistopic（Saiz,1990:

23）.

CSrelatetoamutualattemptoftwointerlocutorstoagreeonameaninginsituationwhererequisitemeaningstructuresdonotseemtobeclear（Tarone,1977）.

CS…areasystematictechniqueemployedbyaspeakertoexpresshismeaningwhenfacedwithsomedifficulty（Corder,1978）.

CSarepotentiallyconsciousplansforsolvingwhattoanindividualpresentsitselfasaprobleminreachingaparticularcommunicativegoal（FearchandKasper,1983）

InherUnderstandingL2Acquisition,EllisdefinedCSasfollows:

Communicationstrategiesarepsycholinguisticplansthatexistaspartofthelanguageuser’scommunicativecompetence.Theyarepotentiallyconsciousandserveassubstitutesforproductionplanswhichthelearnerisunabletoimplement（Ellis,1985:

182）.

Paribakhtetal（1985）makesitmoreclearly.Hesays,

CSaremethodsthatlearnersuseintheL2contexttoremedytheirinadequacyofgrammarandvocabularyinordertoreachtheircommunicativegoal.

ThefunctionsofCSinFLacquisitionare:

（1）theycanencouragelearnerstoformhypothesis（形成假设）andautomationofFLknowledge;

（2）theycankeepthecommunicativechannelopen（保持交际渠道畅通）,soastoincreaselearners’input;（3）theycanarouselearners’communicativeconfidenceandovercometheiranxiety（高海虹,2000:

53）.

Normally,communicationreferstobothoralandwrittenactivities,asspeakingandwritingusuallyrequireonetocommunicatewithotherpeople.However,thistopicwillpaymoreattentiontooralcommunication,whichisaboutspokenlanguage.Writtencommunicationbelongstowrittenlanguage,whichwillbeincludedinwritingstrategyinfuture.

II.ClassificationandElaborationofCommunicationStrategies

Faerch,CandKasper,G（1983）examinedtheCSintheprocessoflanguageproduction.BasedontheCS’effectonFLlearning,theydividedCSintoachievementstrategyandreductionstrategy.Whenlearnersarefacedwithdifficultyincommunication,theynormallyhavetwochoices.Oneistoavoiddifficulty;theotheristomanagetoovercomeit.Themethodofavoidanceistousereductions,includingformalreductionandfunctionalreduction.Itaimstoadjusttheoriginalcommunicativegoal.Themethodofproblemsolvingistouseachievementstrategies.Bothachievementstrategiesandreductionstrategiesarestrategiesofcommunicationtosolveparticularproblemsatparticulartime.However,theyaredifferentinbehaviors.Generallyspeaking,achievementstrategiesretaintheoriginalintentionofmeaning,anduseresourcescreativelytosolveacommunicationproblem.Inaword,theyareusedtoovercometheproblem.Reductionstrategies,ontheotherhand,donotextendone’slinguisticrepertoire,butinsteadchangethemessagetobecommunicatedsothatitcomeswithinavailableresources.Thatistosay,theyareusedtoavoidtheproblem（thatiswhytheyarealsotermedavoidancestrategies）.Nowletmeelaboratethesestrategiesandhelpyouhaveagoodunderstandingofthem.

Achievementstrategiesincludecompensatorystrategies（-`----补偿策略）andretrievalstrategies（检索策略）（束定芳:

80-1）.Compensatorystrategiescanbesubdividedintocooperativestrategiesandnon-cooperativestrategies.

●Cooperativestrategies（求助/合作）arestrategiesofaskingtheinterlocutor（--`---）forcorrectexpressionsthroughdirectappealorindirectappeal.Theyinvolveajointproblem-solvingeffort（mutualattempt）bythelearnerandhisinterlocutor.Forexample,“Whatisthis?

”and“Howtosay‘袋鼠’inEnglish?

”aredirectappeals.Thisshowsthatthelearnerovertlyrequestsassistantandinterlocutor（--`---thepersonwhoistalkingtoone）thenoffersthehelp.Inindirectappeal,thelearnerdoesnotrequestassistance,butindicatestheneedforappealbymeansofapause,eyegaze（眼神）.Forexample,“My…hurt.”（speakertouchedhisback）.Thisismime.Anotherexample,aspeakersays,“TherareanimalfromSichuaniscalled…（apauseandlookingattheinterlocutor）.”Theinterlocutoradds“panda”tothesentencetokeeptheconversationgoing.

●Non-cooperativestrategiesarecompensatorystrategiesthatdonotcallfortheassistantoftheinterlocutor.Theyingeneralrefersto

（1）L2based-strategies（转述策略）.Thatistosay,thelearnermakesuseofalternativeL2forms.Forexample,（a）thelearnerreplaces‘rabbit’with‘animal’.Thisissubstituting.（b）ThelearnerreplacesanL2itembydescribingorexemplifyingit.“Hecleanedthehousewitha…（dustcollector）”→“itsucksinair.Thisisparaphrasing.（c）Thelearnerdevelopsanalternativeconstituentplan,e.g.“Ihavetwo…”→“Ihaveabrotherandsister.”Thisisrestructuring.And

（2）para-languagestrategies（副语言）,i.e.somethingtodowithnon-verbalcommunication.Thelearnercompensates,usingnon-linguisticmeanssuchasmime,gesture,facialexpressions,andsoundlimitationetc.tocommunicate.Forexample,whilelistening,itisnormalto‘support’thespeakerbyphysicalandverbalgestures（suchasnodsoftheheadorutteranceslike‘mm’,‘yeah’and‘uhuh’）thatshowthespeakerhestillhasthelistener’sattention（刘润清,1996:

137）.

●Retrievalstrategiesareusedwhenthelearnerhasaproblemlocatingtherequireditembutdecidestopersevere（--`--坚持）ratherthanuseacompensatorystrategy.Theycanbesub-classifiedinto

（1）stallingstrategy（拖延）,e.g.waitingandusingformulas.Thelearnerwaitsfortheitemtocometohim.Forexample,using“er”whenonecannotdecidewhattosaynext“Andthener—er—justsuddenlyseemedto—er—disappear!

”andusingsuchformulasas“Well”,“Youknow”,“HowshallIputit?

”andsoon.Thelearneraimstoobtainhisthinkingtime.

（2）Usingsemanticfield.Thelearneridentifiesthesemanticfieldtowhichtheitembelongsandrunsthroughitemsbelongingtothisfielduntilhelocatestheitem.Forexample,“Doyouknowthelargeanimalsjumpaboutontwolegscarryingtheiryounginastomachpocket?

（kangaroos--`-）”“Whatdoyoucallthebearthatcanclimbtrees?

”（koala-`--）.And（3）usingotherlanguages.ThelearnerthinksoftheformoftheiteminanotherlanguageandthentranslatesitintotheL2（Ellis:

184-5）.

Achievementstrategiesarerisk-takingstrategies.Theyareverypositive,andhelpfulforlearnerstoexpressclearly,fluently,andnaturally.Itisfarbettertoattempttocommunicatemeaningthantoavoidit.However,researchshowsthatChineselearnersofEnglishdonotuseachievementstrategiesveryconstantly,althoughtheyrealizethatASplayanactiveroleincommunication.Theytendtousereductionstrategies.

RSarerisk-avoidingstrategies.Soreductionstrategy（RS）isalsotermedavoidance.Reductionstrategiesattempttodoawaywithaproblem.Theyinvolvethelearnergivinguppartofhisoriginalcommunicationgoal.Whenfacedwithdifficultyincommunication,learnerstendtogiveupandsimplifyatopic,oravoidsomelanguageforms.Reductionstrategiesfallintoformalreductionstrategiesandfunctionalreductionstrategies.FormalRSinvolvetheavoidanceofL2rulesofwhicht