Teacher-employed communication strategies: Investigating Function type occurrence in Iranian context

چکیده مقاله

Communication strategies, as goal-oriented lines of action to obviate breakdowns in the flow of communication, have
been the subject of extensive studies in SLA. While student-employed strategies have been duly investigated in the
literature, those employed by teachers in the classroom context continue to be inadequately addressed. Moreover,
characterizing functions of communication strategies (CSs) rather than their types as a research interest can offer new
insights for research. Accordingly, the present study concentrated on the function of CSs employed by 16 teachers
across elementary (8) and advanced levels (8) teaching spoken English in private institutes in Tabriz, Iran. A modified
version of Jamshidnejad’s (2011) functions of communication strategies was employed as the framework for defining
functions. T-test results indicated a significant difference regarding ‘maintaining the flow of conversation’ between
elementary and advanced level teachers. As with other function types, no significant differences could be revealed.