Undergraduate Students’ Use of Communication Strategies: A Case Study of Thall University, Bhakkar

Abstract

undergraduate English students of Thall University, Bhakkar. The study employed mixed-method approach by employing both quantitative and qualitative methods to collect data. A questionnaire was administered to 100 undergraduate students who were randomly selected from English Department. Subsequently, an interview type communicative activity was carried out with the participants. The data were analysed following the taxonomy of Celce-Murcia, Dornyei, and Thurrell (1950). The findings indicated that the students use four principal and ten sub-types of communicative strategies while communicating in English. The major strategies Include avoidance, achievement, stalling/time-gaining, and interactional. Certain other sub strategies include such as code switching, topic avoidance, message abandonment, using fillers, gambits, and hesitation devices. The study offered certain recommendations for further studies and also presented pedagogical implications.