Compensation Strategies: Tracking Movement in EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine the compensation strategies used by Iranian elementary EFL learners across the speaking skill. The participants of this study were a sample of 120 EFL elementary male and female learners whose ages ranged between 11 and 25 at a language institute in Rostam, Iran. The main participants were homogenized through the Standardized Key English Test (KET). After the administration of the proficiency test, some oral exams consisting of different speaking topics were administered in the first and following sessions of the course with the purpose of observing and identifying the compensation strategies used by the EFL learners with the same proficiency level. Oxford’s typology of compensation strategies was prepared in form of a checklist to facilitate fast recording of observable compensation strategies in an oral exams. The students’ speaking on the given topics merely served as an opportunity to observe students’ use of compensation strategies. The results indicated that Iranian EFL students tended to use various kinds of compensation strategies in communicating their intended meanings.