The adaptation study of oral communication strategy inventory into Turkish

Abstract

Individuals use a variety of strategies in the course of speaking which can be identified via measurement tools. In the literature, strategy inventories are regarded as the most commonly used measurement tools. However, most of the strategy inventories lack the reliability and validity studies. Furthermore, most of them represent strategies that the learner could use throughout the language learning process and they are not directly relevant to the skill of speaking. Moreover, in the literature, most of the studies carried out on speaking strategies are based on the inventories developed for learners learning English as a second language. With respect to other measurement tools, Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI) developed by Nakatani (2006) for Japanese learning English as a foreign language had a clear factor structure and it seemed less problematic. Thus, the purpose of this study was to adapt OCSI into Turkish. Our concern in the adaptation study of OCSI is to investigate whether oral communication strategies classified in OCSI developed by Nakatani (2006) would also measure Turkish EFL students’ speaking strategy use. Within the scope of adaptation study, the inventory was translated to Turkish and evaluated with the method of back translation. The equivalence between English form and Turkish form, construct validity and internal consistency were examined. The research was conducted with 808 students studying English as a foreign language at ELT departments of three different universities and Anatolian High schools. Based on the findings concerning the reliability and validity studies, it can be concluded that the classification of the original form of OCSI differs from the adapted version to some extent in that the Turkish form is made up of seven factors in contrast to the original inventory consisting of eight factors. Non verbal strategies which existed in Nakatani’s original inventory did not appear in the adaptation form. Instead, the items that consist of nonverbal strategies gave loadings to negotiation for meaning strategies, which implies that the purpose of the interlocutors while using one strategy may be culture specific.