Abstract:
The purpose of the study was to investigate the type of communicative strategies
usedby tutors and students, its importance and effects. The case study design was
employed in this study. The study population comprised tutors of English Language
and students from selected Colleges of Education in the Bono and Ahafo Regions of
Ghana. Purposive sampling technique was adopted by the researcher to select three
(3) tutors of English and five hundred (500) students for the study.A qualitative
content analysis research method was employed to analyse the data. The study
revealed that students‟ use of communication strategies is not a sign of
communication failure, conversely, communication strategies surfaced as they realize
that they have problems of expressing their intended meaning and they need to solve
the problems. The study further unveiled that the communicative strategies used by
students and tutors in the English language classroom in the colleges of education are:
questions, pauses, code-switching, message abandonment all-purpose words,
restructuring, literal translation, repetition, and appeal for assistance. Finally, the
study revealed that the effects of the use of communicative strategies were that: it
helps to reduce both tutors and learners‟ level of communication apprehension, helps
them to achieve a higher perception of communicative competence and improve their
state of communicative self-confidence.The study recommended that Colleges of
Education should include communicative strategy knowledge in their teaching
training programs to make tutors aware of the importance of communication.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign Languages
Education and Communication, submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, in
partial fulfilment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Teaching English as a Second Language – TESL)
in the University of Education, Winneba
SEPTEMBER, 2019
