Oral Communication Strategies among Iranian Advanced EFL Learners

The current study aimed to study the frequency of oral communication strategies among male and female advanced EFL learners from three different L1 backgrounds and different age groups. This study employed quantitative method by administrating Nelson Placement Test and Nakatani (2006) OCS Inventory to 125 individuals comprising both male and female, within three age groups: under 18, 18-30, and above 30. In addition, the participants of this study were chosen from three different L1 backgrounds including Persian, Turkish and Kurdish. Speaking strategies included seven types of strategies. Listening strategies included six types of strategies. The results indicated that interlocutor consideration was the most frequent speaking strategy and paying attention to the speaker was the most frequent listening strategy employed by Iranian EFL learners both male and female from different L1 and age groups. Furthermore, the results indicated that the frequency of the strategies was different among participants from different L1 backgrounds and different age groups but mostly men employed strategies more frequent than females.