Communication Strategies Used by the Students on the Perspective of Language Proficiency

Abstract

In today’s global environment, communication plays a crucial role since everyone cannot be separated with communication activity. Language is believed as a tool of communication. It provides the means to take the place in the society, to express and convey information, to learn about the people and the world around us. This qualitative case study is set to investigate the use of communication strategies on the perspective of language proficiency because the most significant predictor of specific communication strategy use is language proficiency. There are twelve students with high and low proficiency level as the subject of this study which is taken purposively. They are the second year students of English Education Department at one of the universities in Indonesia. In this study, the researcher used multiple data sources, namely observation, interview, and documentation. It is intended to address the research questions. The results showed that the students with high proficiency level used five (5) types and ten (10) sub-types of communication strategies. While the students with low proficiency level used four (4) types and nine (9) sub-types of communication strategies. It means that students with high proficiency level utilized more types and sub-types of communication strategies than the low proficient students did. The study provides valuable contribution in introducing communication strategies and raising students’ awareness to actually use English in real-life communication.