The Investigation of the Relationship between EFL Learners' Use of Oral
Compensation Strategies and their Personal Stamina Abstract
The current study aimed at investigating the compensation
strategies used by EFL learners and the relationship between use of
these strategies and learners' personal stamina. Sample of the study
consisted of 30 third year English section students at the Faculty of
Education, Fayoum University. Data collection instruments included:
(1) personal stamina sub-scale, and (2) an oral interview. The
quantitative and qualitative methods were applied in the current study:
the quantitative method was used for counting the frequency of use and
percentages of compensation strategies, and finding out the correlation
between learners' frequency of use of these strategies and personal
stamina (Pearson Co-efficient was used for correlation analysis). The
qualitative method was used in transcribing the recorded data obtained
from the oral interview, in order to identify the compensation strategies
used by the study sample while doing the oral tasks. Results of the
study showed that (1) the most frequently used compensation strategy
was "use of pause fillers" (53.7 %), followed by "use of repetition"
(15.06 %), " use of false starts" (8.08 %), " Self-repair" (7.8 %),
"circumlocution" (7.4 %), "substitution" (3.54 %), "word coinage" (1.7
%), and "literal translation" (1.2 %). The least frequently used
strategies were "exemplification" (0.11 %), "generalization" (0.66 %),
and "message abandonment" (0.78 %), and (2) there was a positive
statistically significant correlation at (0.01) level between learners'
frequency of use of compensation strategies and personal stamina.
Some recommendations and suggestions for further research were
given.