THE MOST FREQUENT TYPES OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN IRANIAN EFL TEACHERS’ TALK

A large number of empirical studies dealing with communication strategies (CSs) in the field of second / foreign language (L۲) education have so far been conducted, and most of them are based on L۲ learners’ oral discourse. However, since CSs function as a bridge over the linguistic knowledge gap among interlocutors in L۲ teaching contexts, paying equal attention to the use of CSs by teachers is also of considerable importance. Thus, the purpose of the present study is, first, to identify the most frequent types of CSs used by Iranian EFL teachers in their classroom contexts and, second, to investigate the reasons behind their use. The participants were three EFL teachers who were teaching general English courses at a private language institute in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. In order to collect the data of the present study, audio-recordings of three lessons taught by each participant were made. The data, which included ۱۳.۵ hours of classroom talk, were analyzed by transcribing the audio recordings and identifying the CSs. To get further insight into the CSs, each teacher also participated in a single semi-structured interview. The results show that approximation is the most frequently used type of CS, the higher frequency of which, compared to the other types of strategies, can be attributed to the fact that it helps teachers be fast and short in the heat of a conversation. The second most frequent type of CS in the present study is circumlocution which is justified by considering the teachers’ high L۲ proficiency level.