Abstract

This study examines current patterns of oral communication strategy (OCS) use, to
what degree these strategies can be explicitly taught, and the extent to which strategy
use can lead to improvements in oral communication ability.
In a 12‐week English as a Foreign Language (EFL) course based on a communicative
approach, 62 female learners were divided into 2 groups. The strategy training group
(n= 28) received metacognitive training, focusing on OCS use, whereas the control
group (n= 34) received only the normal communicative course, with no explicit focus on
OCSs. The effects of the training were assessed by 3 types of data collection: the
participants' pre‐ and postcourse oral communication test scores, transcription data
from the tests, and retrospective protocol data for their task performance.
The findings revealed that participants in the strategy training group significantly
improved their oral proficiency test scores, whereas improvements in the control group
were not significant. The results of the transcription and retrospective protocol data
analyses confirmed that the participants' success was partly due to an increased general
awareness of OCSs and to the use of specific OCSs, such as maintenance of fluency and
negotiation of meaning to solve interactional difficulties.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0026-7902.2005.00266.x