The Teachability of Communication Strategies

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 2,0, Bielefeld University, language: English, abstract: While I was doing an internship in several English classes in a 'Gymnasium' in 2007, a teacher asked me to take a test in his class (8th grade) of the vocabulary of a certain unit in their textbook. I did so and graded the tests according to his requirements. Every incorrect word led to zero points regardless of how 'wrong' the word was. In one case the students were supposed to give the English word for "Sigkeiten" which, of course, is "sweets". While some simply gave no word, others gave solutions that were wrong, yet creative, for instance a circumlocution, "sweet things" or newly coined word, "sweetys". It did not seem fair to me to disregard these solutions, as someone using them in a communicative situation would be able to better communicate his intention than by simply saying nothing. From this experience I got the idea for my B.A. thesis to deal with the topic of communication strategies , to which these examples belong, and to further examine their role in language learning.
This thesis is an attempt to inspect what CSs are and what their part in education could and should be, respectively actually is. In the beginning I will present a summary of the history of research in the field of CSs and I will give an overview of existing (and often varying) theories, definitions and taxonomies of CSs. After introducing this background knowledge I will examine the practical implications of CS research. By discussing studies and theories by various researchers I will prove that the employment of CSs in communication is useful and effective and that teaching CSs in school is both possible and sensible.
I will then go on in the empirical part to examine the curricula for 'Sekundarstufe I and II' of the 'Gymnasium' in North Rhine Westphalia with regard to CS teaching. I will also look at various scho