ORAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN STUDENTS‟ INTERLANGUAGE Oral Communication Strategies Used in the Interlanguage of International Students: A Comparison-Based Studyamong Different Nationalities

Speakers employ a variety of communication strategies in their interlanguage which contribute to running a smooth interaction and carrying out certain communicative goals when they speak English as a foreign language. This study is an attempt to investigate the oral communication strategies (OCSs) that students from different ethnic backgrounds employ in their interlanguage while communicating in an international context, and to identify any possible differences found in OCSs utilized by 60 intermediate-level international students with different nationalities, that is, African, Arabic, Turkish, and Iranian. The Oral Communication Strategy Inventory, and a semi-structured interview were used as data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics and one-way ANOVA were performed to analyze the data. According to the results, the students reported using a variety of OCSs, with speaking strategies being more frequent than listening strategies across the four nationality groups. The difference found in the OCSs reported across different nationalities was significant in three strategy categories including fluency-oriented, negotiation for meaning while speaking, and nonverbal strategies while speaking

Keywords:

Oral Communication Strategies (OCSs) , interlanguage , nationality