Skip to content

Communication strategy training embedded in classroom tasks using six interactional strategies

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description

The treatment taught six production-oriented communication strategies through specially devised classroom tasks: circumlocution, formulaic sequences (chunks), fillers, appealing for help, approximation, and all-purpose words. Circumlocution is "describing or exemplifying the target object or action" when the exact word is unavailable; fillers are fixed phrases that buy thinking time; appealing for help provides formulaic requests for repetition or meaning. Tasks included dictionary-based definition work in pairs, underlining chunks in storybooks, inserting fillers into filler-free texts, and replacing verbs with get. Reduction strategies such as topic avoidance and message abandonment were deliberately excluded because they induce unwillingness to communicate.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Learners bring and use a monolingual dictionary in class
  • repeated pair-based practice sessions

Constraints

  • Only strategies requiring L2 production and conducive to strategic competence were taught; reduction strategies were excluded

Target Learners

  • Pre-intermediate EFL learners in a private language institute

Learning Goals

  • Strategic competence
  • willingness to communicate
  • meaning negotiation

Claims

Examples

-

Key Sources

  • Abulfazl Mesgarshahr, Esmaeel Abdollahzadeh. (2014). The impact of teaching communication strategies on EFL learners’ Willingness to Communicate. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2014.4.1.4
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id cs-training-task-embedded-pattern
title Communication strategy training embedded in classroom tasks using six interactional strategies
description The treatment taught six production-oriented communication strategies through specially devised classroom tasks: circumlocution, formulaic sequences (chunks), fillers, appealing for help, approximation, and all-purpos...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-11-03
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — abulfazl-mesgarshahr-2014

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.