Thai students appear to have problems
communicating in English as a second
language, especially students of low ability.
This may be caused not only by the lack of
basic grammar and vocabulary but also by
deficiency in the use of appropriate
communication strategies. Low-ability
students experience difficulties in selecting
the most appropriate strategies for many
communicative contexts. This study3
aims
to obtain empirical data on the types of
communication strategies that low-ability
students select which may affect their oral
communication abilities. Three hundred
Thai university students participated in the
initial part of this study, 100 of whom were
randomly selected to complete the
Strategies Used in Speaking Task
Inventory, which was developed to elicit
responses related to their use of
communication strategies. In addition,
content analysis was employed to confirm
the quantitative analysis. It was found that
low-ability students tended to employ riskavoidance
techniques, especially timegaining
strategies, and needed assistance
in developing risk-taking techniques such
as social-affective, fluency-oriented, helpseeking,
and circumlocution strategies.