The Feasibility of Teaching Communication Strategies from the Standpoint of EFL Teachers and Students

The present study attempted to investigate English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students’ perceptions of the possibility of teaching communication strategies (CSs) among pre-intermediate learners. A review of the related literature suggests that the teachability of CSs has been the source of controversy among different researchers. The participants of this study were 20 EFL teachers and their 110 students from three universities and a private Institute in Tabriz. In this mixed methods study, three research tools were used for gathering data: a language proficiency test, a modified questionnaire, and a structured interview. The quantitative phase included the administration of the CSs questionnaire at the beginning and end of the course and instructions on these strategies for 12 weeks. The qualitative phase included the analysis of the teachers’ responses to the interview and coding comments thematically by the researcher. After analyzing the quantitative data by running paired sample t-test, it was found that EFL students confirmed the possibility of teaching communication strategies and suggested that CSs are teachable and useful. The important implication of the study is that strategy training was the factor of progress and the teaching of communication strategies can be pedagogically possible and their instruction is beneficial to students.