The Effectiveness of Negotiation for Meaning Strategies on EFL Learners’ Oral Proficiency Development in Two-way Communication Tasks

This article investigates how Foreign Language learners’ proficiency affects meaning negotiation strategies in two-way communication tasks. First year Thai students majoring English (n = 30) participated in a 12-week Listening and Speaking 1 course in the academic year 2011. The participants were placed in three groups with different based on their English placement scores: high, mid and low proficiency groups. They were trained to use five meaning negotiation strategies before taking part in three different two-way communication tasks which consisted of problem-solving task, information gap task and story-telling task. While performing the tasks, the participants’ conversations were audio-recorded and transcribed to analyze their strategies. In addition, their oral proficiency was analyzed by using authentic assessment throughout the study. The findings showed that negotiation for meaning strategies were facilitative in enhancing students’ oral proficiency development