COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES IN INTERLANGUAGE PRODUCTION BY INDONESIAN EFL LEARNERS

The lack of balance between the foreign language students competence and thecommunicative demands imposed on them prompts them to resort to communicationstrategies. This study attempts to investigate the relationship between the choices of students strategies and their proficiency level of the language. Fourteen students from the EnglishDepartment, State University of Medan were put into two categories, the High proficiency and the Low proficiency level of the language. The strategies used were identified and analyzed. The data analysis was based on Bialystoks taxonomy. The results of the studyindicated that the use of strategies between the two groups varied according to their level of the language. but the difference was not significant. The high proficiency level used more L2-Based Strategies, while the low proficiency level used more L1-Based Strategies. The present study also showed that most the students tended to use achievement strategies to cope with their linguistic deficiency. It is hoped that the findings of this study can be used to develop the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language. especially the students communicative competence in the English Department, State University of Medan, Medan.