LANGUAGE IN INDIA

SPEAKING STRATEGIES TO OVERCOME COMMUNICATION DIFFICULTIES IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE SITUATION - BANGLADESHIS IN NEW ZEALAND
Harunur Rashid Khan

Contents

Speaking Strategies to Overcome Communication Difficulties in the Target Language Situation

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks and gratitude to Dr John Read for all his invaluable guidance as supervisor. I am especially thankful to all the participants without whose enthusiastic cooperation this study could not have been completed. Many thanks are also owed to my fellow students particularly Na Xingwei, Yuki Morioka, Gay Wall and Sophia Kovachevich for all their friendly assistance during this research project. Sabira Yasmin, my wife and my son Rafid Adnan Khan being far away, deserve lots of heartfelt thanks for their remarkable patience and untiring moral support. My parents Suraiya Akter Khan and Hafiz Uddin Khan to whom I am greatly indebted for their blessings. Finally, I am very grateful to my friends and relatives who encouraged me enormously.

Harunur Rashid Khan

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SUMMARY OF THE REPORT

This is a research project carried out with 20 Bangladeshi subjects living in Wellington. The study investigated speaking strategies used in different social and work related situations to tackle communication problems. The data gathered from the questionnaires (n=20) and the follow up interview (n=4) show that these participants do face some difficulties while speaking to the native speakers of English (NSE) and everybody uses some common strategies in communication to cope with the target language situation.

As identified by the respondents, the most difficult areas in speaking are pronunciation (of accent and stress), phrase and idioms, communicative sentence structures, slang and many other colloquial expressions. The common strategies used by them to overcome these difficulties are paraphrasing, approximation, circumlocution, repetition, asking for clarification, checking comprehension, gestures, filler words and some other non-linguistic hesitation devices. They also acknowledge that sometimes certain psychological and cultural factors restrict the possibility of having more communicative interaction in the target language.

Apart from pedagogical importance, these participants put forward some novel recommendations to improve communication skills informally which were claimed to be very useful in their practical life situations such as speaking to the NSE and children (who are learning English naturally) as much as possible, reading simplified fictions, magazines and children's books, listening to the sports commentaries and incidental talks between the NSE in public places and so on.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

The communicative approach to language learning fosters the use of appropriate, positive learning strategies. Nowadays communicative language teaching and learning have become a salient feature in ESL contexts across many countries. And the adult learners, especially in the target language situation directly benefit from the use of communicative skills. Many theoretical and research studies in second language learning strongly suggest that good language learners employ a variety of strategies to improve their communicative ability. From the practical perspectives speaking strategies are one of the most important aspects in dealing with communication skills, particularly in second or foreign language situation, as they enhance learners' confidence and fluency. "The communicative approach implicitly encourages learners to take greater responsibility for their own learning and to use a wide range of language learning strategies" (Oxford, 1989: 29).

This paper aims at surveying some features of speaking strategies in coping with communication difficulties in the target language situation. For my subjects, I chose some Bangladeshi people living in Wellington, New Zealand (NZ). Bangladeshi people are relatively recent immigrants here and most of them came under the General Skill category. Their previous professions include doctor, engineer, teacher, government employee, agricultural scientist, housewife and some other business related jobs. Since they came here, they have been trying to fit into the job market and at the same time adjusting themselves in the target language situation as well. This project investigates how they are coping with the target language communication, and, specifically in speaking, what strategies they are employing when faced with some difficulties.

1.2 Purpose and rationale

Gaining good communicative skills is always considered one of the most important factors in settling down in a new society for the immigrants, especially in a monolingual country like New Zealand. In a recent study "some participants stated that if immigrants are not fluent in English before they arrive in New Zealand they face a real barrier when finding work and communicating with people in the wider community (Department of Internal Affairs, 1996, 2: 51). And here strategy use in communication can enhance language proficiency in many ways. Bialystok (1983: 117) states, Clearly, the effective use of appropriate strategies is an important aspect of communicating in an imperfectly learned language". Studies show highly proficient learners are more likely to use strategies in communication than less proficient learners. This strategy use in communication may vary in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, motivation, personality and nature of job. Many research studies emphasised on the strategy instruction and the conscious use of strategies in communication. However, I have not found any relevant research though I assume that a few such studies might have been carried out in dealing with speaking strategies to overcome communication problems for the adult migrant people.

Communication competence is one of the crucial issues in many countries for the learners from non English speaking backgrounds. On the other hand, strategies depend on the speaker's language knowledge and the linguistic competence of the interlocutor in the topic discourse (Corder, 1983: 15). Controversy still exists among the researchers as to what extent learning strategies and communicative strategies are different. However, from their elaborate discussions it is apparent that strategies in learning and communication are not radically different but rather complementary to each other.

Exploring the communication difficulties and strategy use within a particular community may shed some light on how they are coping with the communicative language situation. This study involves a small survey of 20 Bangladeshi people living in Wellington to identify their speaking difficulties and the strategies they use to overcome communication problems or to carry on communication.

1.3 Research questions

1. What kind of speaking difficulties do the Bangladeshi people face in communication with the NSE?
2. What kind of strategies do they adopt in tackling these difficulties or carrying on communication?

Apart from these two questions, it is expected that some additional issues may come out of this study, such as culture, gender, religious values and motivation factors in relation to strategy use in communication.

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

Over the last two decades a considerable number of theoretical and research studies have been carried out on strategies of language learning. In this regard Tarone (1977), Bialystok (1981, and 1990), Corder (1983), Varadi (1983), Faerch and Kasper (1983), O'Malley and Chamot (1990), Oxford (1989, 1990 and 1996) did numerous studies. However, quite a few studies have been done by researchers particularly on the strategies in communications and their applications. Among them Bialystok (1981), Huang and van Naerssen (1987); Corrales and Cole (1989), and Ross (1991), Dornyei (1995), and Dadour and Robbins (1996) are worth mentioning. Some studies have also dealt with diverse backgrounds of learners such as, Arabic, Chinese, Hispanic, Japanese, Nepalese, Nigerian, Thai and Vietnamese (see Bedell and Oxford, 1996). However, these were mostly carried out with students in institutional settings, highlighting the positive effects of strategy in communication whereas this present study aims at tracing the strategy use in practical life situations which is obviously wider in scope than the previous studies. This may also be considered an overview of current interactional level, difficulty areas and other related issues investigated with a specific group of a community where gender, age, education, profession and L2 proficiency level variables are presumably affecting factors in communication.

In New Zealand, empirical research on migrant language is still in its infancy but with the gradual increase of migrant people new studies of current interest are being undertaken. In recent times, several studies related to language maintenance and shift between L1 and L2 have been carried out from the sociolinguistic point of view (Daly 1990, Holmes and Harlow 1991, Smith 1994, Shameem 1995 and Starks 1997). The Bangladeshi community consists of very recent immigrants and it is not the peak time to look at their language maintenance and shift as the changes are probably not in an important trend. Like some studies above, here also most parents in this community strongly want their children to learn the community language which can blend a unique linguistic and cultural diversity. These studies as a whole provide good insights in carrying out the present one.

2.2 Considering the definitional concepts of communication strategy

Since speaking strategies are in most cases discussed under the broader domain of communication strategies, it is better to have a look at those issues in order to have a clear understanding of communicative strategies. It is also an attempt to look for an effective connection between communication strategies and speaking strategies. We can consider the first two definitions as quoted in Bialystok (1990: 3) which have been proposed for the communicative strategies of second language learners:

a systematic technique employed by a speaker to express his meaning when faced with some difficulty (Corder, 1977).

a mutual attempt of two interlocutors to agree on a meaning in situation where requisite meaning structures are not shared (Tarone, 1980).

Though there is no unanimous agreement on the definition of communication strategies yet, many researchers accept Corder's one as a working definition. According to Tarone (1983: 65) communicative strategies may be seen as attempts to bridge the gap between the linguistic knowledge of the target language interlocutor in real language communication situations and in which his definitional concept is also clearly reflected. Some other researchers (such as Faerch and Kasper 1983 and Poulisse, et. al., 1984) also designed several thoughtful definitions, but for this study the above two definitions seem to be the most relevant and to the point.

Among the researchers there are some different opinions about the relationship between learning and communication strategies. According to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), communicative strategies (for example, changing the topic, using gestures or asking for help) are used to achieve communicative goals whereas learning strategies are meant for learning. On the other hand, Oxford (1990) argues that communication strategies result in speaker's staying in the conversation and thus provide the opportunity for further learning as well as further communication. Corrales and Call (1989) consider that communication strategies make up for missing knowledge.

As Dadour and Robbins (1996: 158) observed, "communication strategies, .... thus could be considered as overlapping somewhat with learning strategies". Despite some debates among the researchers on the definition of communication strategies, the basic points are very obvious for example, the speaker's difficulties, and steps taken to carry on communication. As long as speakers stay in conversation and face problems, they try to apply strategies since these efforts provide them with a sense of security in communication. So, strategies may be considered as the technical tools of dealing with trouble spots in communication. From the overall discussion, this kind of understanding can easily be formed in carrying out this study.

2.3 Strategy application

Dornyei and Thurrell (1994: 44-45, appendix 9) chose some major strategies that are often used in conversation. Here, one might find an overall similarity with Tarone's (1977) categorisation of conscious communication strategies. It appears to be difficult to adopt any particular taxonomy on strategies done by any researcher, yet Dornyei and Thurrell's (ibid) one which is basically a list of strategies along with their typical set expressions, can serve the purpose of the present study in many ways. The other one by Dornyei (1995:58) can also be considered a revised version of the previous one done by Dornyei and Thurrell (ibid). It is stated (Dornyei, 1995: 57), "I have collected a list and descriptions of the CSs I consider most common and important in this core group, based on Varadi (1973), Tarone (1977), Faerch and Kasper (1983) and Bialystok (1990)."

In the use of communicative strategies there are specific characteristics at different developmental stages of the learners' interlanguage. As Paribakht (1985: 141) states, "the learners seem to abandon or adopt certain communicative strategies and also alter their proportional use of certain strategies as they approach the target language. Learners' behaviour in terms of strategy use seems, therefore, to be transitional and dynamic". He further says strategic competence seems to develop in the speaker L1 and it is also transferable to L2. In a recent study of the South African context it was found that proficiency and strategy use are strongly related (Dreyer and Oxford, 1996). It is also generally accepted that communicative strategies are not unique to L2 speakers because communication problems are tackled in L1 communication as well (see Bongaerts and Poulisse, 1989). It is also a fact, as Corder (1983) points out that all speakers use strategies but they are simply more apparent in non-native speakers. And some speakers are simply unaware of the strategies they use.

2.4 Communication in the target language situation

One of the major factors that the migrant people face while settling down in a new country is lack of communication skills. New immigrants often cannot join the work force immediately and so language remains a hurdle to them. Sometimes their previous language knowledge may help communication to some extent but they have to learn how to use this effectively in real-life situation. As long as they make progress in communication, adjustment to the new society and environment becomes easier. As some researchers state Language is a key form of communication. Therefore, language learning means learning to communicate ie., learning to use the language appropriately for the communication of meaning in social contexts (Oxford, Lavin and Crookall, 1989).

In their own countries learners learn English in school but they have less opportunity to use that language. Their whole learning system is greatly marked by constraints caused by culture, and also lack of institutional supports. Thus language learning remains imperfect when it is concerned with the practice in real communication. Clyne (1982: 114) reminds us of another important point which may lead to communication breakdown in the target language situation saying "even among migrants with a high proficiency in English, rules for communicating intentions and for structuring discourse, eg. in essays, letters and meetings are largely determined by cultural background and especially country of schooling".

However, in the target language situation learning may go simultaneously with communicative practice in real life or vice versa. Brown and Yule (1983), Bryne (1986), Huang and van Naerssen (1987), Scarcella and Oxford (1992) Dornyei and Thurrell (1994), and Dornyei (1995) suggest various ways of helping learners achieve oral communications skills and how to motivate them as they improve their speaking ability at different stages. It might help learners of diverse backgrounds achieve more proficiency in communicative language ability despite other constraints and variables.

2.5 Strategies in speaking

Speaking as a productive language skill is considered to be a creative and complex process. In many countries where English is taught mainly as an academic subject, this skill is often neglected which could provide the primary foundation for practical communication. Since all learners use strategies in communication regardless of their being native or non-native, their frequency of interactive language use will account for the proficiency level. Though speakers may adopt strategies while facing some difficulties, conscious knowledge of strategies help more tackle communication problems. Oxford (1990) mentions six categories of learning strategies (such as memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social) and all these can influence learners speaking skill development as they do in the other 3 skills. Therefore, it appears that learning strategies and communication strategies contribute to each other and speaking strategies directly fall within the communication strategies.

2.6 Follow up discussion

Strategies are the often conscious steps or behaviours by language learners to enhance the acquisition, storage, retention, recall and use of new information. It can generally be assumed that adult learners most often engage in the conscious process of learning. Experiencing some difficulties in the target language situation is also common to adult learners. Several research studies show that successful learners tend to use more strategies in communication. There are other factors which are more or less responsible for the degree of strategy use in real life communication such as motivation, ethnicity, age, gender and cultural background. Moreover, as many adult learners are inhibited, language phobic or inexperienced with language learning, strategy use in communication can retard their competence.

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This part explains how the questionnaires were developed, how the respondents were selected, how the information and consent letters were prepared. It also includes, piloting the test, profile of the respondents and the interviewees, and administering the survey.

3.2 Developing the questionnaires

A questionnaire was developed in two parts. The first part (appendix 3) involves 10 questions relating to the respondents' background information and the second part (appendix 4) has 15 questions based mostly on difficulties and strategies in communication. To respond to the questions (other than yes/no type), the respondents are in most cases required to choose one answer out of three, four or five choices. In a few questions they may choose more than one answer if they think it appropriate. If no answer corresponds to their choice, they can specify their choice in other option. The content of the questions is mainly based on four sub categories such as, 'general pattern of interaction', 'nature of difficulties', 'type of strategies use, and 'social scope of interaction'. Each sub category includes three to five questions. In preparing these questions, I set some of them intuitively and in other cases I consulted with two of my fellow students for further improvement. In the questionnaire construction, I tried to follow some questions formats as set in Smith's (1994) recent survey with the Lao refugee community of Wellington. In the present questionnaire all of the items are either yes/no or multiple choice type questions as they seemed to be easier for the subjects to respond to.

Some questions were also set to be used in the following interview with 4 subjects. The questions for the interview were set in a way so that it could supplement the responses given in the questionnaire. The list contains 10 yes/no (appendix 6) and 10 open ended question (appendix 7). In addition, there are 5 role play tasks (appendix 8) particularly designed to elicit strategies which they tended to use in common situations. In both phases (for questionnaire and interview) the questions were revised, checked and consulted with the supervisor to make it a more reliable instrument for data collection.

3.3 Selecting the respondents

Bangladeshi people started coming to NZ in the last 10-15 years. Most of them came during the last five years and they came under the general skill migration category. According to the Statistical Department (Statistics NZ Census 1996: 27) 1,122 Bangladeshi people migrated to New Zeanland until recently. Most of them are living in the major cities; among them the majority live in Auckland. In Wellington there are about 14-16 families and 10-12 single people living now. According to the Association for Bangladeshi Community in Wellington there are 41 adult members (Voter List, 1997-98). It is possible that a few other people live in Wellington outside this list.

For this study I chose 20 adult people on the basis of their age, sex, previous profession and length of stay in NZ. As I also belong to the same community and share the same cultural and first language experience, I had easy access to them. There were a few people whom I did not include as subjects mainly because they have relatively long experience of working and living in NZ as well as a very good educational (home and overseas) background and probably would have hardly any communication difficulties. Similarly I have also excluded some members who are under 21 and studying in different secondary and tertiary institutions as they have native like communicative proficiency. However, the 20 subjects in this study can be considered as representatives of most households of the community in Wellington. Among these 20 people 7 members were females and most of the adult members had families. On the whole, they can be a good combination of people in respect of their age, gender, education and job.

3.4 Developing the information and consent letters

After a verbal invitation was given, a formal information letter (appendix 1) was prepared which described the topic and the main purpose of this study. It also clearly stated how the questionnaires and the interview would be carried out and as respondents what rights they would have. This information was followed by a 'consent letter for the questionnaire' (appendix 2) requiring the respondent's signature as a proof of willingness to take part in the research. Similarly, a separate 'consent letter for the interview' (appendix 5) was also prepared. The whole package of information, consent letters and questionnaires was in English, assuming that most of them already had a reasonably good reading knowledge and there would be no difficulty in their understanding the meaning.

3.5 Piloting the test

During the development of the question format I trialed the items with three subjects and also with two of my fellow students which helped me revise the questionnaire in a useful way. Three subjects (of different age and profession) participated in the trial and I searched for only practical difficulties they might have in filling out the questionnaire. Later I revised on the basis of their suggestions. Apart from this, I tried to avoid linguistic jargon in the questionnaire as the respondents might not be familiar with it. On the whole, attempts were made to keep the questions as simple as possible so that no confusion could arise.

3.6 Profile of the respondents

The members of the Bangladeshi community taking part in this study mostly had a tertiary education background and good job status in their home country. Some of them have done or are currently studying in different NZ institutions. In their previous education they had a great influence of English language as they used to depend mostly on English texts during their academic study. Though they were from a very culturally distinctive nation, they had a positive attitude towards the English culture or/and language. This was probably because they had been familiar with English language and culture as the country was a part of the former British colony (then it was undivided India) for nearly two centuries. Now, English as a second language has a very advantageous position in education, official and business communication in Bangladesh. However, Bengali (first language) is used as the main language for the overall communication in all spheres of life.

Culturally the Bangladeshi community is very integrated. Quite often they socialise on various occasions and visit each other's houses. Speaking in their first language (among adults), associating mostly within their own community are distinctive characteristics. Speaking a mixture of the target language and their mother tongue at home is particularly noticed when they interact with their school going children as speaking English naturally is becoming a dominant feature among the children of Bangladeshi parents. On the overall feature of this community, it appears that through their cultural integrity, they are more or less maintaining their own language and culture and at the same time they are also gaining proficiency in the target language situation. It would be interesting to look at the findings of language maintenance and shift among different community people as some studies have recently been done in Wellington (see Daly, 1990 and Holmes, et. al., 1993).

3.7 Profile of the interviewees

Four in-depth interviews were conducted in order to obtain more information mainly to support the responses found in the questionnaire. All these interviews took place at the interviewee's residence. They were given the list of points (appendix 7) to be discussed 15 minutes before we started our conversation. They also filled in a list of 10 yes/no type questions (appendix 6) at the beginning of the interview. This interview was tape-recorded in two parts. The first part consisted of open discussion on the 10 key points (appendix 7) using mostly L1 and in the second part there were 5 role play situations (appendix 8) in English. Here the interviewer acted as the conversation partner in the role play sessions. Each interview took about 30-40 minutes on average.

Interviewee A

This subject is a single male in his early 30's. Professionally he is a doctor and is preparing to enter the medical profession in New Zealand. He has already spent 2 years living in NZ and met many NSE as a young man with an outgoing nature. He takes keen interest in various matters of communicative English and tries his best to practise it. The place he lives in is a good place of interaction with many multi-cultural people which according to him, helped build mutual tolerance and language adjustment. Though he did not attend any language proficiency course, he is coping well in various situations of communicative language use. He is also very much aware about the high standard of language ability in his professional requirements in New Zealand.

Interviewee B

This subject belongs to the same age group, is a male and is married with a school going child. He spent several years in government service before coming to NZ. He has already spent more than 2 years living in NZ mostly undertaking some academic study. He attended a language proficiency course and thought this helped him in dealing with communicative difficulties in many ways. As a member of a family, he likes to have opportunity of meeting some NSE and thus he finds it very useful in language improvement. He agreed that conscious knowledge of strategy use could improve one's communication ability. He knows very well that this is one of the most important key factors particularly in terms of getting a job.

Interviewee C

This subject was the only female interviewee. She is in her early 40's and spent many years in a teaching job in her home country. She has been here for more than 4 years, spending one year in professional study. She spent much time being involved in the community work and also looked for a job. As a mother of two school going children, she learnt many communicative expressions from them and found ways to use them in various ways at home and outside. Being a housewife, she thought there might be some limitations or less opportunities in interacting with the NSE outside home, however, learning from their own children could be a great alternative source in a homely environment with far less sense of inhibition and anxiety.

Interviewee D

This subject in his mid 40's spent more than 7 years living in New Zealand and gained considerable experience in different job situations as well as communicative language ability. His present job also provides him lots of opportunities to interact with NSE everyday and he has his own ways of using strategies in communication difficulties. Out of his long experience he has developed a good sense of cultural adaptability with many kinds of people and thus he found it very helpful to overcome communication problems whenever it occurred. He did not attend any language proficiency course however, his job situations create a lot of scope to improve his language ability.

3.8 Administering the survey

In questionnaire: I made visits to the subjects homes and got all the questionnaires filled out by them. They were all very cooperative and enthusiastic in taking time and responding to the questions. Most of them did not find any particular difficulties in filling out the questionnaires as they found the questions easy to understand and also to respond to as required by them. Only two female respondents faced some difficulties in understanding the questions and needed help during their response, probably because of their low reading proficiency. In that case I explained to them in L1 and then got it done. In other cases, there were a few questions asked by the respondents for example 'What is specialised education ?'(Q. 5, appendix 3), or, 'Can short and formulaic expressions be interaction?'. The time they took in filling out the questionnaires ranged between 10 and 25 minutes. During the time when the respondents were filling out the questionnaires, I kept important points in my note book such as what simple questions were asked and the amount of time taken in the questionnaire.

In interview: After analysing the data on the questionnaires I set some questions, and a few strategy based activities for the interview sessions. I chose only four subjects among those 20 who responded to the questionnaires. In selecting them, I applied various personal characteristics such as, a subject who had long time job experience dealing with variety of clients, a housewife with school going young children, a young married man who was doing post graduate study after attending an English proficiency course, and a doctor preparing for the New Zealand Registration Exam (NZREX). They were also the typical members of the community representing some of their fellow individuals in various ways and most importantly they expressed their interest and willingness to take part in the interview.

The interview was semi-structured. It involved oral report where interviewees reported their ideas and experience of the target language use. 10 yes/no and 10 open ended questions (appendix 6, and 7) were developed to elicit their detailed opinions. There were 5 role play tasks as well to identify what strategies they typically used. Some of the questions particularly in the 'yes/no' type were based on the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning or 'SILL' (Oxford, 1990: 294-296) though I did not use her measurement scale. These questions relate to 8 strategies recommended by Oxford (1990 50) and six groups of strategies (ibid: 18-21) such as memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies and each group involves one or more questions. The questions for open discussion were designed to make a linkage with the previous questionnaire and it also included few questions to gather information through their introspective and retrospective expressions. Basically these two series of questions aimed at covering information which was missing or inadequate in the questionnaires and in doing so, attempts were made to follow the strategy list provided by Dornyei and Thurrell (1994: 44-45, appendix 9).

The interviewees were given the questions (open ended and role play) beforehand so that they could have time to think. At first, the list of '10 yes/no' type questions was filled out and then open discussions followed by a role play tasks were carried out. During this time in most cases, L1 was used for conversation which appeared to be very natural. For the set tasks (role play session), they spoke in English and I acted as a role play partner. Each interview took about 30-40 minutes on average.

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CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND ANALYSES OF THE SURVEY

4.1 Introduction

The responses I received on the basis of the questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part included 10 questions (appendix 3) which accounted for the personal background and the next part with 15 questions (appendix 4) mostly covering difficulties and strategies in communication.

4.2 Results and analysis of the responses from the questionnaire

4.2.1 Analysis of background information

TABLE 1

Table 1 shows the respondents' sex, age group, marital status, school going children, education from Bangladesh and overseas, period of living in NZ, previous job, study in NZ and their level of English. For the purpose of discussion, it was easier to present the responses in two parts on the basis of similarity in the questions.

Out of 20 participants 13 were males and 7 females. This represented the existing male-female ratio of this community living in Wellington. The age group ranged from 21-25 to 41-45. Out of which seven persons belonged to 31-35, five belonged to 26-30, the same number was in 41-45 group and only one person belonged to 21-25 group. So, the majority (7) belonged to 31-35 group in which there was a combination of male and female members. Among these respondents, 14 subjects were married and the rest 6 were single and out of 14 married subjects, 11 of them had school going children. Here, it was assumed that the parents with school going children (who were learning the target language naturally) had more opportunities to reduce the communicative difficulties using speaking strategies.

Table 2

Table 2 shows most of the participants had tertiary education background from their home country. Among them 9 subjects had university degree of various disciplines, and 7 others had specialised education (5 graduate doctors, 1 agriculture graduate and 1 engineering graduate). So, it clearly shows that among all respondents 16 of them had tertiary education background and the other 4 finished their higher secondary ie college education. In the case of overseas education only 4 subjects studied, which might have a very little influence on the features of language ability of the whole community.

After coming to NZ most of them had done or were doing study (other than English course) such as teacher training, business computing, MEd, PhD and medical and health related study. This kind of current background might provide them some positive feedback in achieving more proficiency in communication. It is important to note that the people who took part for this study are mostly recent immigrants. Their period of living in NZ spanned from less than 2 years to 10 years. So, on the whole, most people (85%) have been living here for 0-3 years which was very significant in terms of their language adjustment and experience in communication.

The level of English as they rated themselves was also consistent with their background. It was interesting to note that the subjects who rated themselves higher than others have longer experience of overseas living and study. Here 2 persons rated their ability as excellent, 7 persons were very good, and the same number for good. Only 4 people rated their ability as limited. Nobody was of the lowest ability ie. very weak. On the whole, 80% of them had language ability at an average or higher level. It is relevant to mention that Bangladesh was for a long time (nearly 200 years) under the British colonial regime and subsequently English gained second language status in education. At present, from lower primary to higher secondary level English is taught in Bangladesh as one of the compulsory subjects. Moreover, tertiary education is mostly based on English medium texts. So, for these participants, long time familiarity with English might have strengthened their adjustment and ability in English. However, it cannot be claimed that the participants' self rating of language ability is equivalent to their communicative proficiency in the target language situation.

4.2.2 Analysis of difficulties and strategies

This part consisted of 15 (appendix 4) questions mostly dealing with difficulties and strategies in speaking. Respondents were asked to choose one answer (more than one answer for a few questions) from three to five choices. There were only 2 yes/no type questions. According to the nature of the questions, I categorised them in 4 parts and this appeared to be useful for discussion. The first part fell into 'general patterns of interaction with the NSE' and it involved 4 questions (1, 2, 3 and 8). Secondly, it was the 'nature of difficulties' and there were 3 questions here (4, 6 and 13). In the third phase there were three questions (10, 11 and 12) and they indicated the 'social scope of language use'. The final part is the 'types of strategy use' which included 5 questions (5, 7, 9, 14 and 15).

General patterns of interaction with the NSE

In this part, question 1 indicated 12 subjects interacted with NSE 'many times a day' followed by 4 of them did so 'at least once a day'. Only 3 respondents spoke to the NSE 'at least once a week' and same figure applies to 'less than once a week'. So, the highest frequency of interaction as 'many times a day,' (for 12 subjects) which might provide ample situations for using strategies in coping with difficulties in communication. If the first two figures are combined then, 80% response indicates that the interaction with the NSE occurred everyday, which is very significant in relation with difficulty and strategy use.

Question 2 described the places of usual interaction. There were five choices and some respondents chose more than one answer, which was very logical. In question 3, participants were supposed to choose one answer as to the frequency of interaction with the NSE whom they did not meet before. Here, 7 subjects said that they experienced interaction with the new NSE everyday and this probably happened because of the nature of their job. So, interacting with new people can create a situation for the speakers to encounter possible difficulties as well as to use variety of strategies. This also enhances speaker's confidence in communication. This response was followed by 6 persons who spoke 2-3 times a day which restricted the opportunities somewhat however, this might have provided them some experience of language use. Only 2 subjects spoke once a week followed by 5 subjects spoke less than once a week. This group of people were mostly housewives who stayed at home and so, the situation generally restricted their scope for more interaction and eventually had less difficulties in communication.

Nature of difficulty

In the next phase 'nature of difficulty' included 3 questions and here the first one (question 4 in the appendix 4) was about the kind of difficulties the respondents faced while co