Communication Strategies of College Non-English Major Students at Guizhou University

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation into the communication strategies (CSs) of College English students (non-English major students) at Guizhou University in China. These students are a large group who are studying English and need to use CSs to facilitate their communication because they do not have sufficient exposure to English in daily life. All of the subjects are first-year bachelor students from the Arts and Science fields and they are grouped into high and low proficiency levels. The data is collected by means of a questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. Frequencies and Chi-square tests are conducted to analyze the data. The results indicate that variables of proficiency level, academic field and gender are probably related to CSs use to varying degrees. The results of this study could be a great help in the teaching of English to Chinese EFL learners by making them aware of CSs already in their repertoire and by encouraging them to use CSs more frequently.