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
In this thesis, there are some problems that appeared and need to be answered, they are:
1. What kinds of communication strategies used by English students?
2. What is the most dominant communication strategies used by the English
students?
1.3 Objectives of the Analysis
Dealing with the analysis of communication strategies in 2009 batch students of English department university of Sumatra Utara, the objectives of the
analysis of this thesis are: 1.
To find out kinds of communication strategies Used by English students 2.
To find out the most dominant communication strategies used by the English students.
1.4 Scope of the Analysis
The analysis only focuses on kinds of Communication Strategies that found in Batch 2009, the students of English Literature Department of University
of North Sumatra. Not all of 2009 students are as informant, but only 10 of them will be recorded and analyzed.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
1.5 Significances of the Analysis
The writer hopes that, this thesis can give the information for the readers, especially the students of university that in communicating by using English
language, there is a strategy than can help them to produce and make their communication be communicative.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
CHAPTER II
2.1 Definition of Communication Strategies
There are so many statements are different written by different Linguists of Communication Strategies. For instances, Tarone 1977: 195 says that
Communication Strategies is used by an individual to overcome the crisis which occurs when language structures are inadequate to convey the individual’s
thought. Faerch Kasper 1983: 36 says that Communication Strategies is potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a
problem in reaching a particular communication goal. Poullise in Kesper: 1983 says that Communication Strategies are Strategies which a language user employs
in order to achieve his intended meaning on becoming aware of problems arising during the planning phase of an utterance due to his own linguistic short comings.
These definitions have more in common, however, than their insistence on problematicity as defitional to Communication Strategies . They all conceive of
Communication Strategies as mental plans implemented by the second language learner in response to an internal signal of an imminent problem, a form of self-
help that did not have to engage the interlocutor’s support for resolution e.g. Faerch Kasper 1983: 36. The intraindividual, psycholinguistic view locates
Communication Strategies in models of speech production In contrast, Tarone 1983: 65 saw Communication Strategies as a mutual
attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situations where requisite meaning structures do not seem to be share, Communication Strategies is attempts
to bridge the gap between the linguistic knowledge of the second-language
Universitas Sumatera Utara
learner, and the linguistic knowledge of the target language locator in real communication situations.
Taron in Vivian 1980 says that Communication Strategies is mutual attempts to solve L2 communication problems by participants.
Faerch and Kasper in Vivian 1984 say that Communication Strategies can be individual solutions to psychological problems of L2 processing.
Kellermen and Poullisse in Vivian 1990 say that Communication Strategies can be ways of living vocabulary gaps in L1 or L2.
Ellis 1985:182 says that Communication Strategies are psycholinguistic plans which exist as part of the language user’s communicative competence;
communication strategies are seen as part of the planning phase. They are potentially conscious and serve as substitutes for production plan which the
learner is unable to implement. Brown 1980 says that a communication strategy is the conscious
employment of verbal or nonverbal mechanism for communicating an idea when precise linguistic forms are for some reasons not readily available to the learner at
a point in communication. Another definition is Communication Strategies are seen as part of the
planning phase. They are called upon when learners experience some kind of problem with an initial plan which prevents them from executing it. They can
either abandon the initial plan or develop an entirely different one by means of a reduction strategy such as switching to a different topic or try to maintain their
original communicative goal by adopting some kind of achievement strategy such as L1 borrowing. As Slinker has point out, communication strategies
Universitas Sumatera Utara
constitute one of the processes responsible for learner errors. We might expect, therefore, that the choice of communication strategies will reflect the learners’
stage of development. For example, learners might be expected to switch from L1-based strategies to L2 based strategies as their knowledge of the L2 develops.
It would also be interesting to discover whether the use of communication strategies has any effect on L2 acquisition. For example, does learners notice the
gap more readily as a result of having to use a communication strategy obviate the need for learners to learn the correct target-language form? However, nothing is
yet known about this. Communication Strategies are strategies that learners employ when their
communicative competence in the language being learned L2 is insufficient. This includes making themselves understood in the L2 and having others help
them understand. Learners use communication strategies to offset any inadequacies they may have in grammatical ability and, particularly, vocabulary.
Communication strategies aid learners with participating in and maintaining conversations and in improving the quality of communication. This, in turn,
enables them to have increased exposure to and opportunities to use the L2, leading to more chances to test their assumptions about the L2 and to receive
feedback. Without such strategies, learners are likely to avoid L2 risk-taking as well as specific conversation topics or situations.
Based on Longman dictionary of Applied Linguistics 1985 Communication Strategy is a way used to express a meaning in a second or
foreign language, by a learner who has a limited command of the language. In trying to communicate, a learner may have to make up for a lack of knowledge of
Universitas Sumatera Utara
grammar or vocabulary. For example the learner may not be able to say it’s against the law to park here and so heshe may say this place, cannot park. For
handkerchief a learner could say a cloth for my nose and for apartment complex the learner could say building. The use of PHARAPRASE and other
communication strategies e.g. gesture and mime characterize the INTERLANGUAGE of some language learners.
Two key concepts figure in most discussion of communication strategies. These are that they are conscious, and that they are problem oriented. In the case
of the former, they are the result of production strategies and reflect the transitional state of the learner’s second language knowledge. In the case of the
latter, they are the result of communication strategies that are consciously employed by the learner in order to reduce or replace some elements of meaning
or form in initial plan. As learners may not always be always being aware of their use of communicative strategies, they suggest that a better definition is to refer to
them as “potentially conscious”. Communication strategies are problem-oriented. That is, they are
employed by the learner because he lacks or cannot gain access to the linguistic resources required to express on intended meaning. Communication strategies as
part of a particular kind of plan which is activated when the initial plan cannot be carried out.
Mytchel Myles 1998:37 state that communication Strategies are tactics used by the non-fluent learner during L2 interaction, in order to overcome specific
communicative problems. The study of communication strategies CS is relative newcomer in the field of SLA research.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
Rubin 1981, 1987 defines communication strategies as those strategies used by a learner to promote and continue communication with others rather than
abandon it. They are strategies used by speakers when they come across a difficulty in their communication because of lack of adequate knowledge of the
language. Bialystok, 1990: 3 states Communication Strategies is A systematic
technique employed by a speaker to express his ideas when faced with some difficulty, A mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in
situations where requisite meaning structures are not shared, Potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a
particular communicative goal, Techniques of coping with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectly known second language.
All the above definitions reveal the same purpose of communication strategies, namely, to solve a communication problem that has emerged by
applying some kinds of techniques. Among these, Corders in Kasper: 1983 explanation seems to be more visual and pellucid from the viewpoint of a non-
native speaker of English. The definitions from Faerch and Kasper 1983: 189 also provide us with specific and precise descriptions of communication
strategies, which refer to the employed techniques when speakers have problems in expressing themselves, i.e., a way used to express a meaning in a second or
foreign language by a learner who has a limited command of the language
Universitas Sumatera Utara
2.2 Kinds of Communication Strategies
