Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Major Language Studies, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, 2016

In the course of learning a second language,learners will frequently encounter communication problems caused by lack of linguistic resources.Communication strategies play an important role to overcome these problems in order to keep the continuity of the communication process in the second language.In addition,the level of different communication competence also affects the tendency of learners in the usage of communication strategies.However,previous studies only examined the usage of these strategies in general and did not touch in depth regarding the differences of communication strategies usage between two groups of learners,one with high level of communication competence,and one with low level of communication competence.Therefore,this study is carried out to identify the types of communication strategies used by the learners of Arabic as their second language that comprise of both high and low level of communication competence in Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM).This study also aims to find out the common communication strategies used by the learners as well as to examine the differences between high and low competence learners in term of communication strategies usage.The participants of this study are four students of Arabic Language and Communication Programme in USIM; two of them were among low competence speakers meanwhile the other two were among high competence speakers.Qualitative approach was utilized in this study.Direct observation of a group discussion was implemented and was recorded by both video and audio recorder.The transcribed data was organized and analyzed using ATLAS.it7 through thematic coding analysis using the checklist of communication strategies adapted from Dornyei’s taxonomy (1995) and Nijmeghen Project (1999).The findings show that all of classified communication strategies were employed by participants except the “foreignizing” strategy.There are eight common communication strategies used by high and low competency speakers that consist of two main types which are achievement strategies and time-gaining strategies.The finding also exemplified the differences in terms of strategies used by high and low competency speakers and the usage frequency.Conceptual strategies were only used by high competency speakers whereas avoidance strategies were only used by lower level speakers.The high competency speakers made more frequent use of intra lingual strategies while the lower level made more frequent use of inter lingual strategies to handle difficulties or breakdowns in communication in oder to keep the flow of conversations in a second language.

Includes bibliographical references.

Unit Repositori institusi(URI)Perpustakaa Donation 20171221 0000107113

Abstracts in Arabic, English and Malay.