The Use of English Communication Strategies by Thai EFL Interns

This study focused on exploring English communication strategies used by 196 fourth-year Thai English as a Foreign Language students, comparing the types of English communication strategies used by the students of several majors within the same internship program. The study employed a mixed methods design. The findings reveal that, overall, the students moderately used communication strategies. Non-verbal strategies were employed the most, followed by appeals for assistance, and time-gaining strategies. Students from three majors, including English, hospitality management, and tourism similarly rated the non-verbal strategies as the most frequently used. In their view, these non-verbal strategies could provide hints to the interlocutor and also help to express their mood. While the students majoring in English and tourism rated appeal for assistance strategies as the second most frequently used, the students majoring in hotel management rated time-gaining strategies as the second most frequently used. The students from three majors similarly rated avoidance strategies as the least frequently used. They did not view such strategies to help maintain a professional conversation. In addition, overall, there were no significant differences among the means of English communication strategies used by students of different majors within the internship program (F (2,193) =.856, P =.425). However, when focusing on sub-types of communication strategies, the results showed that the English majors used significantly more circumlocution, approximation, and requests for clarification while using less foreignizing on average than students from both the hotel management and tourism majors. This is possibly related to their different levels of English proficiency.