CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Analysis
Based on Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics 1989, language is the system of human communication by means of a structured arrangement of
sounds or their written representation to form larger units, example morphemes, words, sentences. In common usage it can also refer to non-human system of
communication such as the “language” of bees, the “language” of dolphins. Language can be divided into two, they are written language and spoken
language. Everybody agrees that language form firstly introduced to us is in the
spoken form. Most of our activities use spoken forms as the medium of building relationship, interaction to our environment. L. Susan Stebbing 1962:15,
explain that, we use language in order to communicate one with another, to express our personal reactions to situation, to stimulate a response in some one
else, and for the sake of thinking something out language may be described as a means of conveying something that the user of the language wants to convey
We can see that oral communication is the effective and efficient way in daily activities of human beings. Language plays an important role and the
strategic instrument to embody the ambition. What language? Certainly, the languages legitimated as the international languages by the United Nation
Organization. One of them is English.
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Some experts or writers argue that communication strategies can happen or take places according to the needs of the communication, for example:
As Tarone in Vivian 1996 says that while the L2 have a problems in communication, so they use the strategies as mutual attempt to solve their
problems. Kasper in Vivian 1996 agrees that solution to psychological when the
speakers have problems in L2 processing. Kellermen in Vivian 1996 says that communication strategies can be the
strategy in gaps vocabulary is L1 or L2. Cook 1996:87 L2 learners are attempting to communicate trough a
language that is not their own it is different from children learning a first language where mental and social development to go hand in hand with language
development. Hence, unlike L1 children, L2 learners always want to express thing for which they do not have the means in the second language. In the 1980s there
was considerable debate about the communication strategies of L2 learners employ to cope with this problem. There are two functions of communication
strategies; they are communication as social interaction, and communication strategies as psychological problem-solving, for this case, the writer only tries to
discuss communication strategies as social interaction. Tarone in Vivian 1980, communication strategies can be divided into
three, they are: Paraphrase, Falling back, and Avoidance. Each of them can he has some different types. Those types are:
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A. Paraphrase
1 Approximation,
→ someone who is grouping for a word falls back on a strategy of using a word that means approximately the same, say ‘animal’ for ‘horse’, because
the listener will be able to deduce from the context what is intended. 2
Word coinage → another form of paraphrase is to make up a word to substitute for the
unknown word ‘air ball’ for ‘balloon’. 3
Circumlocution → L2 learners talk their way round the word- when you make a container for
‘pottery’.
B. Falling back, known as transfer, example:
1 Translation from the L1, a German-speaking student says ‘make a the door
shut ‘rather than ‘shut the door’. 2
Language switch, that’s a nice tirtil caterpillar distinct from the code switching discussed above because the listener does know the L1.
3 Appeal for assistance, what is this?
4 Mime what you need. My daughter succeeded in getting some candles in a
shop in France by singing ‘happy birthday’ in English and miming blowing out candles.
C. Avoidance,
→ Do not talk about things you know are difficult in L2, whether whole topics or individual words.
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The writer wants to analyze various communication strategies used by students in English Department Faculty of Letters University of Sumatra Utara.
1.2 Problems of the Analysis
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