The communication strategies employed by English majors at Bejaia University in academic presentations

Abstract EN

The current study aims at identifying the most common communication strategies employed by EFL graduate students at Bejaia University when delivering oral presentations.

Further, the study attempts to explore the possible effect of task demands and context on the performer's strategic behaviour.

To this end, data were elicited from audio recordings of oral presentations carried out by 16 participants in two different settings: the classroom and master thesis defense session.

Communication strategies were identified according to Dörnyei and Körmos' taxonomy (1997).

The overall results show that the participants resorted to a number of communication strategies including non-lexicalized fillers, repetitions, restructuring, and self-repair respectively.

In addition, the findings revealed that the context of communication might influence the quantity more than the quality of communication strategies.

Hence, It is recommended to expose the students to a wide range of oral activities in different settings so they can learn how to adjust their strategic behavior according to the demands and context of the tasks.