Communication Strategies Employed By Algerian First-Year Middle School Efl Learners During Oral Interviews

The present study investigated the oral communication strategies (CSs) used by twelve Algerian First-Year Middle School (1MS) English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Riabi Rabah Middle School, Khemis El Khechna, Boumerdes, Algeria, during the later part of the first semester. The participants, who had studied English for three years, answer seven semi-structured oral interview questions. Each interview was allocated up to ten minutes per pupil, audio-recorded, transcribed, and systematically coded and analyzed following the CS taxonomy proposed by Dörnyei and Scott (1997). The results demonstrated that pupils commonly use fillers and hesitation devices, followed by self-repair, message abandonment, code- switching, and approximation. The findings indicated a higher reliance on direct, indirect, and then interactional CSs to maintain spoken interactions despite 1MS EFL learners’ communicative difficulties. In order to enhance learners’ confidence and oral performance, the findings suggested including CSs education, establishing a supportive learning environment, and further studies that investigate the use of CSs by Algerian EFL learners in large classrooms.