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The Use of Communication Strategies to Compensate for Gaps in Classroom Communication: The Case of the University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Lawrencia Etrue Essien
Ekua Tekyiwa Amua-Sekyi
Abstract
Classroom interaction is very critical to the teaching and learning process in the second language classroom and speakers may encounter difficulties in expressing their communication intentions as a result of gaps in their linguistic repertoire. Necessarily, this study was conducted to ascertain the strategies students and lecturers of the University of Cape Coast use to compensate for gaps in their classroom interactions. The convergent mixed method approach was used to study 128 students and 2 lecturers of the Department of Arts Education of the University of Cape Coast. Questionnaire and an observational schedule were used to collect data from students and lecturers. It was found that students prefer to use non-linguistic means (indirect strategies) to convey their meaning while lecturers prefer to use strategies that engage students in the conversation (interactional strategies). Fillers, self-rephrasing, and self-repetition were found to be the most frequently used strategies by students and lecturers. The study concluded that interactional strategies are often used by lecturers as a teaching methodology even though excessive use of communication strategies sometimes disrupts instructional hours and impedes the proper acquisition of the English language. The study also recommends the use of more learner-centred teaching methodologies which will give students the opportunity to self-learn the second language by practicing it.
