Филологические науки / 1. Методика преподавания языка и литературы

Chugu S.D.

Distance Learning and Development of Communicative Strategies

Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of

Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics, Ukraine

Communicative approach to the study of foreign languages is considered a key factor to provide effective language teaching. The notion of communicative strategies has undergone significant changes lately due to the intensive studies in linguistics, pedagogy and communication theory (Cook V. (1993), Gardner R. C. (1982), Yule G., Tarone E. (1990), Russell R.G., Loschky L. (1998). The new requirements set within the domain of cross-cultural communication call for the effective communicative interaction. Another significant factor that influences the methods of teaching foreign languages is the development of new technologies which widen the methodological domains and ensure effective use of distance learning.

The concept of communication strategy was worked out in response to the inadequacy of the old theories to offer a clear conception of what it means to know a language. The development of the communicative approach to language teaching led to the new understanding of communicative strategies regarded at present as the workable means to overcome difficulties in expressing intended meanings, because only a few studies in the past dealt with communication strategies in global communicative interaction. Moreover, learners’ use of the target language has repeatedly been studied with respect to grammatical correctness and sociolinguistic appropriateness.

According to Cook V., none of the theories of communicative competence were adequate for a communicative approach to language learning because they did not take into consideration the communicative strategies that language learners employ in order to cope with the communicative problems arising in the course of communicative interaction [1].

The complexity of the entity caused problems with finding a properly formulated definition of communication strategies that covers all the aspects of teaching and learning process involved, there have been many definitions offered for communication strategies of the second language learners. The ones that give a clear insight into the nature of communication strategies are as follows: ‘learners’ attempt to bridge the gap between their linguistic competence in the target language and that of the target language of interlocutors’ [5: 288]; ‘the conscious employment by verbal or nonverbal mechanisms for communicating an idea when precise linguistic forms are for some reasons not available to the learner at that point in communication’ [2: 42]; ‘communication strategies are potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal’[4: 36]. Language teachers should foster strategic competence among students and provide learning opportunities to develop communication strategies. Even if a language teacher accepts this position and is convinced of the benefits of communication strategy training, still the problem of using the materials that assist instructional practices remains urgent.

We share the view of Roblyer M.D., Edwards J. (2000), Pressley M. (2006) that one of the effective ways to deal with the problems is to implement the system of distance learning to the full [4, 5]. The MOODLE system, used in the Vinnytsia Institute of Trade and Economics of Kyiv University of Trade and Economics, helps to bring theory and practice together by examining teaching approaches and materials as possible resources to assist interested teachers to apply communication strategies in the classroom in a proper way due to the possibilities that it provides to encourage student’ self-study, raise their self-confidence, self-esteem and motivation, an opportunity to check their progress and to evaluate it critically alongside other important benefits.

Regarding successful communication in terms of sending comprehensible messages to other speakers Yule G. & Tarone E. (1990) claimed that the role and necessity of teaching communicative strategies are undoubted, as considering teaching of communication strategies in various domains of research, namely language learning strategies, listening strategies, strategy transfers, second language learning, procedural vocabulary, cultural differences in language use, learner autonomy and teaching of communication strategies leads to more effective communication techniques [7].

Communicative strategies are believed to include four main language and interactional aspects: grammatical competence traditionally dealing with syntax; sociolinguistic competence dealing with social appropriateness of communication; discourse competence dealing with cohesion and coherence in discourse; strategic competence focusing on pragmatic functions of communication. Strategic competence refers to the individual’s ability to use communication strategies. According to Russell R.G. and Loschky L., communicative competence comprised grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence and strategic competence [6].

The cultural background of language users is another important issue to be regarded as communication permeates every aspect of interpersonal interaction. Conversation is so widely used and accepted as a common verbal activity that its complexity tends to be taken for granted. However, since there has been a growing interest in the nature of conversation in the fields of artificial intelligence, communication disorders and intercultural communication, conversation has become an academic subject and has attracted the attention of researchers in traditional disciplines such as sociology, psychology and linguistics but language learning cannot be considered separate from its culture for a number of reasons. Language is a manifestation of culture in all its aspects and areas. If we analyze a word as a minimal nominative unit of the language we should study its cognitive, language and cultural meanings.

In general, cultural meaning refers to words and expressions which represent peculiarities of cultural perception, values and behavior norms and patterns accepted in a certain language community. At discourse level the links between language, communication and culture are virtually inseparable but there are numerous ways of using verbal means for different functions, such as complimenting, greeting, complaining, insisting, agreeing, apologizing and a number of diverse communicative events and situations.

Significance of communicative strategies for promoting and developing the learning process in general and the verbal interaction skills in particular is undeniable. The recognition of their importance calls for a new teaching approach that enables language users to use these strategies to the full. This predetermines the necessity of further research of the nature and mechanisms of teaching communicative strategies. Still the most important research results in the field prove that there are other stages that should be taken into consideration to enhance teaching communicative strategies, among them identifying students' learning and communicative strategies, conducting training on these strategies, helping language learners become more independent and autonomous.

These categories can be further subdivided into five groups that aim particularly at developing students’ awareness of different strategies, developing their knowledge about strategies, developing students’ skills in using strategies for academic learning, developing their ability to evaluate their own strategic use, developing the transfer of strategies to new tasks. While taking these phases into consideration, teachers should go through several steps when teaching speaking tasks in order to make sure that students would get benefits from them and would develop their speaking skills more effectively. Furthermore, teachers have to provide students with various activities that would enable them to use their strategies in the process of doing new speaking tasks and to evaluate their use of these strategies critically.

Recent findings of numerous researches are in support of the idea of raising the learners’ awareness of the nature and communicative potential of communication strategies by making them aware of the benefits that communication strategies provide particularly when used appropriately. Students should also be encouraged to take risks and to use communication strategies in an adequate way. Language learners should use all their available resources to implement language resources without being afraid of making errors. Nevertheless not all communication strategies should be encouraged, if they are used too frequently. For example, topic avoidance, mumbling, language switch, repetition, and the message abandonment shouldn’t be encouraged. On the other hand, strategies such as circumlocution, appeal for help, self-correction, literal translation, word coinage, and all-purpose words such as ‘like’, ‘things’ and the like may be encouraged.

This approach, viewed as consciousness-raising, is important for a number of reasons. Primarily, communication strategies can lead to learning by eliciting unknown language items from the interlocutor, especially in the appeal for help strategy. Besides, communication strategies are an important part of language use. Moreover, the use of an appropriate communication strategy compensates for the lack of linguistic knowledge on the part of the student. In this respect team work the role of which should be emphasized is to be used extensively in the EFL/ESP classroom as the development of teamwork skills through organizing students either in pairs or in small groups, helps maximize opportunities for them to speak, correct mistakes and improve their communicative skills and strategies on the whole.

The development of sociolinguistics has shifted the attention of research from the nature of the mechanistic aspect of transmission to the study of the significance of communication in its social context.

The increasing demand for effective communicative competence is predetermined by the new changes in the global world and the strict requirements to language users who have to be fluent communicants in the context of intercultural social interaction. Different aspects of communicative competence have received great attention in language and literacy education, still the field that deals with the ability of language learners to employ various tactics in achieving effective communication has not been explored widely. Thus this area of communicative strategic competence and its implications for research and teaching needs further study.

To sum up, the changes in the understanding of the basic approaches were caused by a number of reasons: the development of sociolinguistics that deepened the understanding of the link between language and society in general and language in its social context in particular; the study of pragmatics has made a significant contribution to the concept of communicative competence, as pragmatic competence emphasizes not only the appropriateness of language in its social context but also its functions to achieve communicative goals; cognitive aspects proved significant as the encoding process is the primary source of communication in which speakers need to make use of all available resources, social as well as cognitive, to achieve their communicative goals to meet the new challenges of the global world in which distance learning and teaching are bound to become a key factor to ensure effective communicative interaction.

References

1. Cook V. Linguistics and second language acquisition / V. Cook. - London: Macmillan Press, 1993.

2. Ellis R. Communication strategies and the evaluation of communication performance // ELT Journal / R Ellis. – 1984, No. 38 (1).

3. Gardner R.C. Language attitudes and language learning: Attitudes towards language variation / R. C. Gardner. - New York: Practice-Hall, 1982.

4. Pressley M. Reading Instruction That Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching / M. Pressley. - 3^rd ed. - N.Y.: Guilford Press, 2006.

5. Roblyer M.D., Edwards J. Integrating educational technology into teaching / M.D. Roblyer, J. Edwards. - 2nd ed. - N. J. : Merrill, 2000.

6. Russell R.G., Loschky L. The need to teach communication strategies in the foreign language classroom //JALT Journal / R. G. Russell, L. Loschky. – 1998, Vol. 20 (1).

7. Yule G., Tarone E. Eliciting the performance of strategic competence: communicative competence in a second language / G. Yule, E. Tarone. - New York: Newbury House, 1990.