Speaking English as a Second Language

Learners' Problems and Coping Strategies

Alireza Jamshidnejad

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030550561
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030550578
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book focuses on understanding the process of problem construction in oral communication in foreign language contexts, examining how speakers of English as a second language approach issues in oral communication, as well as the strategies they employ to overcome these difficulties. Using theories of general communication, and in particular current approaches to L2 oral communication and strategies in interactional discourse, the authors construct a theoretical framework for defining, identifying and classifying learners' problems and coping strategies when speaking English as a second or foreign language. The book offers a coherent process-oriented description of the complex and multidimensional nature and typology of oral interaction problems in EFL contexts, and it will be of interest to practitioners, teachers, researchers, students, and curriculum designers in Applied Linguistics and TESOL.

© The Author(s) 2020

A. Jamshidnejad (ed.)Speaking English as a Second Languagehttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55057-8_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: Challenges of L2 Oral Communication in EFL Contexts

Alireza Jamshidnejad¹

(1)

Department of English Language, College of Education, University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Rustaq, Oman

Alireza Jamshidnejad

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

1 Introduction

Becoming a fluent speaker of a new language is the main dream that motivates a large percentage of learners to take language courses. Still, many language learners perceive communicating skills such as speaking the most challenging skills to master (Khan & Pinyana, 2004; Lafford, 2004; Pinter, 2006; Somsai & Intaraprasert, 2011). This even becomes worse since oral skills are usually employed as the first criterion for assessing the effectiveness of second/foreign language education programmes. Students in second/foreign language education programmes are considered successful if they can communicate effectively in that language (Richards & Rodgers, 2014; Riggenbach & Lazaraton, 1991).

Indeed, communicating in a language other than ones’ mother tongue can constitute a real challenge for most language learners. Mastering oral skills in a new language, particularly in an environment where there is not enough input of the target language (L2), would take probably a decade or so (Khan, 2010; Kongsom, 2009; Teng, 2012). Even after years of developing their semantic and syntactic competences, language learners often become frustrated and reluctant to participate effectively in L2 oral communication. They frequently complain about the lack of opportunities and resources that would enable them to learn how to communicate their message or intended meaning. Even advanced language learners can suffer from a lack of sufficient preparation to communicate beyond the classroom. Consequently, they prefer to keep silent whenever they are not sure whether they can manage the communication successfully. Others may decide to moderate or replace what they ‘want to say’ with what they ‘can say’ (Ervin, 1979, p. 359).

As speaking is essentially a communicative act, study the nature of L2 oral communication is very crucial in understanding the causes of the problems mentioned above. Communication in a target language is a highly complex, demanding and multi-faceted skill that involves different competencies and mechanisms (Bygate, 2001; Kormos, 2006; Levelt, Roelofs, & Meyer, 2000). It is also a skill that cannot be transferred automatically from the speaker’s first language into their second (Thornbury, 2007). Moreover, speaking is an activity generally performed in real-time but learned in the classroom where there are insufficient opportunities for practising command of English skills for real-world communication (for example see Choomthong, 2014; Karnnawakul, 2004; Kimsuvan, 2004). There are also different factors influencing the learners’ spoken performance in a communicative event, from individual (i.e. age, gender, L2 proficiency level, personality) to psychological (i.e. anxiety, confidence, motivation, stress, fears of mistakes) and social factors (i.e. face-threatening, the power relationship between interlocutors, educational context, task types) (see Chapter 12). This poses considerable pressure on L2 communicators and forces them to spend a great deal of time and effort struggling to construct tangible utterances for transferring their message in L2 oral interactions. Not being able to compensate for their L2 deficiencies, language learners may give up, keep silent, speak with numerous pauses or trembling voices or even switch to their first language (L1) in their L2 oral interactions. Unwillingness to communicate, lack of confidence, anxiety, apprehension, nervousness and stress are feelings commonly reported by EFL language learners in L2 oral communication (Jackson, 2002; Tanveer, 2007; Tuan & Mai, 2015).

However, some successful L2 speakers, despite their limited knowledge of the target language, can communicate effectively in a foreign language. They rely entirely on their available resources to communicate within restrictions by using coping strategies. The effective use of a target language to construct L2 communication in situations where there is communicative deficiency involves the effective use of communication strategies (hereafter CSs). This makes it urgent to explore oral communication as an independent skill to understand better the nature and causes of the difficulties participants face in their L2 speaking and the functions of strategies to cope with them. Due to the multi-facet nature of L2 speaking, scholars from different branches of applied Linguistics are required to be involved in studying the problem construction in L2 oral communication. The following fields have significant contributions on what we know today about speaking (Khan, 2010): SLA (second language acquisition), first language acquisition, cognitive psychology (Khan, 2010), speech processing (Dell, 1986; Levelt, 1989, 1999), interaction (Gass, 2002; Long, 1985; Pica & Doughty, 1988; Swain, 1985), discourse analysis (Kasper, 1985; Tarone, 1981), language learner strategies (LLS) (Cohen, Weaver, & Li, 1996; Nakatani, 2006; O’Malley, Chamot, Stewner-Manzanares, Kupper, & Russo, 1985; Oxford, 1990), communication strategies (CS) (Dörnyei & Scott, 1997; Færch & Kasper, 1983; Poulisse, 1990; Tarone, 1981), task-based research (Bygate, Skehan, & Swain, 2001; García Mayo, 2007; Gilabert, 2004, 2007; Robinson, 1995) and oral proficiency testing (Lumley & O’Sullivan, 2006; O’Sullivan, 2000; Purpura, 1999; Swain, Huang, Barkaoui, Brooks, & Lapkin, 2009).

Although L2 oral communication has been attractive to a big group of senior and junior researchers around the world, to my knowledge, there is no published book focusing primarily on nature and construction process of problems in EFL oral communication. The main goal of this book is to bring together several lines of isolated research and provide a comprehensive overview of the various kinds of problems in oral communication, the ways they are constructed, and the strategies which can be used to deal with these problems in EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts. By the EFL context, we mean those contexts in which learners’ learn English in a situation/locality where it is not spoken/used in the community. A foreign language is mainly learned to be used in another country and usually has no communicative function outside the classes. Both L2 ‘oral communication’ and ‘speaking’ refer to learners’ ability to communicate in English fluently and effectively.

The main framework of this book has been taken from the chief editor’s qualitative studies on oral communication in EFL contexts (Jamshidnejad, 2010). Using these studies, interpersonal communication theories and models, this book then offers a systematic framework to achieve a coherent process-oriented description and a deeper understanding of the complex and multidimensional nature of EFL oral interaction problems and then classifies them into different categories. This book not only stimulates learners’ problem construction process in EFL interactional discourse but also contains a practical typology and strategies which will be invaluable to both new and advanced language users.

2 The Nature of Communication

Communication is the main concept in the term ‘L2 oral communication’. Communication, as a concept, originally comes from the Latin word ‘communicare’ meaning ‘to share’ or ‘establish commonness’. Although there is not a single, universally accepted definition of communication used by scholars (Trenholm and Jensen [2004] referred to Dance and Larson [1972] who found 126 definitions of communication), ‘sharing’ a ‘message’ between two individuals or more is a ‘common part’ of all ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: Challenges of L2 Oral Communication in EFL Contexts
• Part I. Approaches to the Nature of L2 Oral Communication
• Part II. The Nature and Typology of Learners’ Problems in L2 Oral Communication
• Part III. Communication Strategies and Their Functions in L2 Oral Communication
• Back Matter