NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS’ ORAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: A CASE STUDY AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI

To gain a better understanding of language learning processes, specifically oral strategies utilized in communicative activities, this research intends to investigate the spoken communication skills of University of Economics – Technology for Industries (UNETI) students who are not majoring in English. English non-majors oral communicative capability at UNETI is not what one would expect after completing a university degree. However, research on communication tactics is uncommon in Vietnam since most earlier research on the subject seems to concentrate primarily on methodological or linguistic aspects affecting Vietnamese students' communicative competencies. Therefore, this research presents a study that generalizes communication methods used by intermediate-level English-speaking UNETI non-majors in English. It was a quantitative and qualitative investigation in which a communication strategy taxonomy suggested by Malasit, Y. and Sarobol, N. (2013) was used to analyze and identify students’ use of communication strategies in their recorded speaking performance. Data from students' interviews and informal recordings will be used to inform suggestions for teaching and learning English for communicative competence at UNETI.