Atin Purwadi (0813042021) - communication strategies as an assignment of SLA 2011

ANALYSIS OF A CONVERSATION BY MEANS

OF COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES

(An Assignment of Second Language Acquisition)

Atin Purwadi

0813042021

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

LANGUAGE AND ART DEPARTMENT

EDUCATION AND PEDAGOGY FACULTY

UNIVERSITY OF LAMPUNG

201 1

I. INTRODUCTION

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate. This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary. Furthermore, second language acquisition derives from the language acquisition. Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is the common term used for the name of the field and refers to the learning of another language after the native language has been learnt (Yufrizal, 2008).

In SLA, we find the term communication strategies. According to Bialystok (1990: 1), “the familiar ease and fluency with which we sail from one idea to the next in our first language is constantly shattered by some gap in our knowledge of a second language”. The forms of these gaps can be a word, a structure, a phrase, a tense marker or an idiom. The attempts to overcome these gaps are described as communication strategies. In this case, communication strategies have turned into a crucial topic for all foreign language learners. And for this reason, communication strategies, which involve both listening and speaking, can indicate the language acquisition of someone.

From the description above, we find out that in order someone being understood when he/she speaks in his/her second language, they will use communication strategies. But, we do not know which strategies to solve the problem between them that are more frequently used in the communication. For this reason, the researcher conducted a research to find out which strategies to solve the problem between them that are more frequently used in the communication.

II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Stern (1983) defines communication strategies as techniques of coping with difficulties in communicating in an imperfectly known second language. Furthermore, Faerch & Kasper (1983) stated that communication strategies as potentially conscious plans for solving what to an individual presents itself as a problem in reaching a particular communicative goal. From these definitions reveal the same purpose of communication strategies, namely, to solve an emerged communication problem by applying some kinds of techniques.

In communication strategies there are some categorization as Dornyei(1995) reveals two opposite directions in communication. One is avoiding and the other is compensating. Avoidance strategies can be further broken down into several subtypes, such as phonological avoidance, syntactic or lexical avoidance and topic avoidance. Compensatory strategies, on the other hand, involve “compensation for missing knowledge” (ibid: 129). Dornyei outlines eleven types of compensatory strategies in a very comprehensive way which include circumlocution, word coinage, prefabricated patterns, appealing for help and stalling or time-gaining strategies, etc (Dornyei, 1995 cited in Brown, 2000: 128). Some of them happen in a high frequency, while others may seldom occur.

For further, the categorization of communication strategies (Dornyei: 1995) as follow:

A.     Avoidance Strategies

These can be classified as follow:

1. Message abandonment: Leaving a message unfinished because of language difficulties.

2. Topic avoidance: Avoiding topic areas or concepts that pose language difficulties.

B.     Compensatory Strategies

These can be classified as follow:

1.      Circumlocution: Describing or exemplifying the target object of action (e.g. the thing you open bottles with for corkscrew).

2.      Approximation: Using an alternative term which expresses the meaning of the target lexical item as closely as possible (e.g. ship for sailboat).

3.      Use of all-purpose words: Extending a general, empty lexical item to contexts where specific words are lacking (e.g. the overuse of thing, stuff, what-do-you call–it, thingie).

4.      Word coinage: Creating a nonexisting L2 word based on a supposed rule (e.g., vegetarianist for vegetarian).

5.      Prefabricated patterns: Using memorized stock phrases, usually for “survival” purposes (e.g., Where is the ___ or Comment allez–vous?, where the morphological components are not known to the learner).

6.      Nonlinguistic signals: Mime, gesture, facial expression, or sound imitation.

7.      Literal translation: Translating literally a lexical item, idiom, compound word, or structure from L1 to L2.

8.      Foreignizing: Using a L1 word by adjusting it to L2 phonology (i.e., with a L2 pronunciation) and/or morphology (e.g., adding to it a L2 suffix).

9.      Code-switching: Using a L1 word with L1 pronunciation or a L3 word with L3 pronunciation while speaking in L2.

10.  Appeal for help: Asking for aid from the interlocutor either directly (e.g., What do you call…?) or indirectly (e.g., rising intonation, pause, eye contact, puzzled expression).

11.  Stalling or time-gaining strategies: Using fillers or hesitation devices to fill pauses and to gain time to think (e.g., well, now, let’s see, uh, as a matter of fact).

Based on the theories above, the researcher conducted a research in order to find out which strategies to solve the problem between them that are more frequently used in the communication.

III. DATA COLLECTING TECHNIQUE

The researcher conducted the research which was a data in from of video recording. It recorded on Wednesday, 4^th May 2011. The targets of the research are in the following:

Shandy (S)          : a student of informatics system department Lampung University in the eighth semester.

Fajar (F)              : a student of English department Lampung University.

The transcription as follow:

F                        : hei man, what are you doing?

S                        : I am just reading newspaper

F                        : ohw.. what the news today?

S                        : this about uhm… new technologies. This about new cell phone

F                        : uhm… I have new phone

S                        : oh really

F                        : it’s … the price is very low.

                          This is very good

                          You have new phone too?

S                        : this is mine this is new too

F                        : ohh…

S                        : uhm… it’s cheap and  yeah… maybe… yeah… it’s new brand new cellphone.

                          Big capacity, extra memory, and yeah… it’s helping to the something, I mean retrieving e-mail and uhm… sending uhm…

F                        : message

S                        : yeah… messages

                          Uhm… maybe faster than .. than.. uhm..

F                        : another

S                        : yeah… another type

                          I think that’s all

F                        : look my phone

S                        : yes

F                        : my phone is very old, but the price is very low, just one hundred and fifty thousand rupiahs.

S                        : really?

                          Are you sure about that

F                        : it’s very low

S                        : oh… yeah maybe…

F                        : how about you?

S                        : maybe… maybe… I mean uhmm… the seller need that…

The seller need that money so much I think

So yeah…. He sold that phone with low price because yeah.. uhm… maybe he said that I need  that money so much and I need that money uhm… to yeah… uhm… anything.

F                        : but the function is same, to sending the message and phone about internet.

S                        : how was your class today?

F                        : my class was very bad, because I can’t take the mid semester because the lecturer doesn’t come and then I am very sad because I haven’t scholarship uhm.. how about you?

S                        : yeah.. uhm.. it’s same case that I had before, yeah, when I am the last semester student so I don’t have many problem as like you did , like you have uhm…. For my class yeah… its fine and first scholarship, yeah… I don’t… I don’t …. I have not idea about that because I didn’t take it

F                        : why?

S                        : because the requirements is not simple.

F                        : it’s very hard

S                        : yeah… it’s very hard

F                        : not easy

S                        : i..i…I don’t know what to do and yeah… that’s it uhm, now

F                        : we must need the his signature, his signature, his signature and other

S                        : yeah.. as I am the last semester student, so I have to consult to my lecturer because yeah… it my must task to be um… a bachelor

F                        : about the script?

S                        : yeah… bachelor degree. Emm… god willing..

                          It’s not easy because the head of computer program is going to Germany so I have to wait for him yeah… because he’s really busy for yeah… preparing anything about the requirements absolutely

F                        : emm… maybe different on campus, ok on my class , my class is very em… bad, because my friend and I … I am not close with another friends, because I think it’s not same hobbies , my friend is very very you must know it.

S                        : yeah… yeah.. I know that, as we know in this boarding house we live with another people, with different hobbies, with different habit and emm.. I think yea.. that’s the case and how we can join with them emm….

F                        : another

S                        : yeah we can live with them lovely

F                        : but I can’t, but I can’t

S                        : how?

F                        : because if my friend and I is not same hobbies I think I can’t be close and then if I can be close I not know about his meaning or her meaning and I can’t be his or her…

S                        : ok, maybe I have an idea, maybe you and your friends need to go to somewhere, I mean maybe seashore, maybe climbing mountain or discuss your case maybe your class case, so I think that’s it

F                        : because I think the all person of class must be one, but I can’t be one, why and how .. I am not

S                        : ok.. ok… listen… maybe it’s already dark , so we need to pray and we’ll discuss it later, ok?

F                        : ok, thank you….

                                                                                                                IV.                                        RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The main goal of learning foreign language is to communicate well. Furthermore, in communication we are still finding the obstacle in communicate well. In this case, some people use communication strategies in order to make them being understood. As the conversation between Yoga and Shandy, they used communication strategies. thus, the researcher try to analyze the conversation of them by considering the Dornyei’s categorization of communication strategies.

As it stated before that Dornyei categorize the communication into two main branches, namely avoidance strategies and compensatory strategies. In further, it is shown as follow:

A.     Avoidance Strategies

From the conversation above, the researcher can get some point that can refer to avoidance:

1.      Message abandonment: Leaving a message unfinished because of language difficulties. Such as ‘the seller need that…’, it was said because the speaker hard to find what was the next word or utterances that he wanted to say, so speaker tended to leave the information unfinished.

2.      Topic avoidance: Avoiding topic areas or concepts that pose language difficulties.

Such as:

F   : but the function is same, to sending the message and phone about internet.

S   : how was your class today?

F was still talking about the cell phone, but S tried to avoid the topic then S change to another topic, he thought that the previous topic dealt with the pose of language difficulties.

B.     Compensatory Strategies

From the conversation above, the researcher can get some point that can refer to Compensatory as follow:

1.      Approximation: Using an alternative term which expresses the meaning of the target lexical item as closely as possible. For example: ‘it’s very low’, low here can be meant as ‘cheap’.

2.      Use of all-purpose words: Extending a general, empty lexical item to contexts where specific words are lacking. For example: ‘ok, maybe I have an idea, maybe….’, the repetition of ‘maybe’ was wasting and useless.

3.      Nonlinguistic signals: Mime, gesture, facial expression, or sound imitation. This strategies can be seen in video.

4.      Appeal for help: Asking for aid from the interlocutor either directly (e.g. I mean retrieving e-mail and uhm… sending uhm…) or indirectly (e.g., rising intonation, pause, eye contact, puzzled expression. This strategy can be seen in video).

5.      Stalling or time-gaining strategies: Using fillers or hesitation devices to fill pauses and to gain time to think (e.g., Uhm… maybe faster than .. than.. uhm..).

From the analysis above, we can see that the tendency of fajar and shandy when they communicate each other is compensatory strategies rather than avoidance strategies. the dominant strategies that they used is Stalling or time-gaining strategies.

Besides the analysis based on Dornei’s categorization, the researcher analyze the data by using Tarone’s typology of conscious communication strategies. Basically tarone’s and dorney’s categorization of communication strategies are same. The classifying criterion of Dornyei’s categorization is based on the consequence of communication, either success (compensatory strategies) or abandoned (avoidance strategies). In contrast, Tarone’s classification is much simpler with similar sub-types placed in one category.

In further, the analysis based on Tarone’s typology of conscious communication strategies as follow:

1.      Avoidance

a.       Topic avoidance

b.      Message abandonment

2.      Paraphrase

a.       Approximation

b.      Word coinage

c.       Circumlocution

3.      Conscious transfer

a.        Literal translation

b.      Language switch

4.      Appeal for assistance

5.      Mime

Then the analysis basically same, but in conclusion based on Tarone’s categorization, the tendency of  Shandy and Fajar in communication deals with two dominant strategies that is appeal for assistance and mime.