Developing an oral communication strategy inventory

1. Developing an oral communication strategy inventory Yasuo Nakatani The Modern Language Journal 90,ii, 2006

2. Questions to be discussed • What variable is measured in this questionnaire? • Definition (conceptual vs. operational) • How is the questionnaire developed? • How many stages did the researcher go through for constructing the questionnaire?

3. Question One • Variable • Oral communication strategy • achievement strategies or compensatory strategies • reduction strategies or avoidance strategies Oral communication strategies specifically focus on strategic behaviors that learners use when facing communication problems during interactional tasks

4. Three stages • Stage One • Use an open-ended questionnaire to elicit a variety of strategy items • Stage Two • Pilot study (400 subjects) • Stage Three • Validation (400 subjects)

5. Stage One • Selecting questionnaire items • use an open-ended questionnaire • complete the statements such as “ When I am speaking English, I pay attention to….,” “ When I am listening to other people speaking English, I try to…” • 80 students in the first semester EFL lessons

6. Stage Two • Constructing a pilot test questionnaire • 40 items for strategies for coping with speaking problems • 30 items for strategies for coping with listening problems • Use the five-point likert-scale • 400 university students • 8 items from speaking and 4 items from listening were deleted due to their low item-total correlation

7. Stage Three • The final factor analysis • 400 university students responded to the questionnaire (45% men and 55% women) • Made a factor analysis

8. Oral communication problems • What communication problems might people encounter in interaction?

9. As a speaker • Your partner cannot understand you. • You are not familiar with the topic. • You do not have proper language to express what you want to say • I feel nervous while speaking. • You find the question difficult to answer. • You often produce grammatical errors in your speaking

10. As a listener • You cannot understand your partner. • Your partner uses difficult language • You are not familiar with the topic. • I feel nervous while listening.

11. You cannot understand your partner. 22.I ask for repetition… 21. I make a clarification request… 20. I ask the speaker to use easy words… 19. I asks the speaker to slow down… 23. I make clear to the speaker what I haven’t been able to understand.

12. You cannot understand your partner. • I try to translate into L1 little by little. • I pretend to understand it. • I only pay attention to what I have understood.

13. An open-ended questionnaire • When I am speaking English, I try to… • When I am listening to other people speaking English, I try to… • What helps me most when I communicate with others is…