Compensatory strategies of Croatian EFL learners - Lexical choices
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of compensatory strategies by adolescent Croatian EFL students faced with lexical challenges. The participant sample consisted of 74 mixed-gender secondary school students with the mean age of 17.6 years. The method used for data collection was a writ...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://darhiv.ffzg.unizg.hr/id/eprint/8380/ http://darhiv.ffzg.unizg.hr/id/eprint/8380/1/Compensatory%20strategies%20of%20Croatian%20EFL%20learners%20-%20Lexical%20choices.pdf |
| Summary: | The purpose of this study was to explore the use of compensatory strategies by adolescent Croatian EFL students faced with lexical challenges. The participant sample consisted of 74 mixed-gender secondary school students with the mean age of 17.6 years. The method used for data collection was a written, 40-item synonym provision task. In interpreting the results both quantitative and qualitative analysis based on the framework of language affordances were used. The results indicated that, after avoidance, the most frequently employed compensatory strategies were conceptual holistic and L1/L2-based strategies. They exploited a variety of affordances: those provided by the task itself, their own linguistic background, formal similarities, etc. The results are discussed with reference to the limitations imposed by the nature of the instrument used to examine compensatory strategy use in this study. Cilj je ovog rada bio istražiti upotrebu kompenzacijskih strategija kod hrvatskih učenika engleskog kao stranog jezika u situaciji kad su suočeni sa zahtjevnim leksičkim izborima. Istraživanje je provedeno na uzorku od 74 hrvatska srednjoškolca, učenika engleskog jezika, oba spola, a čija je prosječna dob bila 17,6 godina. Za prikupljanje podataka korišten je pisani zadatak s 40 jedinica gdje su ispitanici trebali naznačene riječi i izraze zamijeniti sinonimnima. U interpretaciji dobivenih rezultata poslužili smo se kako kvantitativnom, tako i kvalitativnom analizom oslonjenom na koncept jezičnih pruženosti (language affordances). Rezultati su pokazali da su, nakon izbjegavanja, najčešće korištene kompenzacijske strategije bile konceptualna holistička i one bazirane na materinjem i drugim stranim jezicima. Ispitanici su se koristili širokim spektrom pruženosti koje im je osigurao sami zadatak, njihova jezična biografija, formalne sličnosti, itd. |
|---|