The development of Strategic Competence in oral interaction. : A contrastive analysis of face-to-face communication and synchronous computer mediated communication.

Sammanfattning: The empirical study carried out in this degree project is exploratory, and its main objective is to investigate the development of strategic competence in oral production as it occurs in two different communication modes, namely, synchronous computer mediated communication (SCMC) and face-to-face (FTF) communication. More specifically, this study compares the instances of different communication strategies (CS) used to negotiate meaning. This aim was approached through the following research questions: RQ (1): Which types of communication strategies do Swedish learners of English use to enhance interaction in different communication modes? RQ (2): How frequently do they use these strategies in each communication mode? RQ (3): Which communicative mode creates an environment more favorable for the occurrence ofNofM? The results of the study demonstrated that the CS the participants used were: clarification request, appeals for assistance, confirmation check, provision of assistance, self-correction, use of Swedish (L1), topic shifting and circumlocution. The latter two were only used in FTF communication, making this the communication mode with the highest variety of CS types. Concerning our second RQ the frequency of usage of the aforementioned CS, the results suggest that the frequency differed between the two communicative modes a part fromappeals for assistance and provisions of assistance. In turn, self-correction, topic shift and circumlocution had a higher frequency in FTF communication, whereas clarification requests, confirmation checks and usage of Swedish had a higher occurrence rate in SCMC. Concerning our third RQ on the one hand, the results in favor of FTF communication were reflected in the higher response rate of appeals for assistance and the use of circumlocution. On the other hand, the results supporting SCMC were seen in the higher frequency and especially in the use of the L1, in the lesser occurrence of self-correction of faulty forms, as well as the higher number of turns per minute and higher percentage of turns used for CS. Based on these results, the present study would seem to point at SCMC as the most favorable communication mode for NofM.