Impact of strategy instruction on Korean EFL students’ oral interaction: Proficiency and task type variables

The purpose of this study was to test whether interaction strategy instruction is effective in enhancing the oral interaction of Korean EFL university students, focusing on proficiency and task type variables. A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 60 first-year students enrolled in a required English course, divided into experimental and control groups (30 students each). The experimental group received strategy training over three weeks during a 6-week experimental period. A pretest and posttest compared the frequencies of three interaction strategies before and after instruction. The results indicate that strategy instruction was most effective in enhancing strategy 2 (requesting and giving clarification), while strategy 1 (follow-up questions) was the most frequently used across all tasks, despite marginal improvement after instruction. Strategy 3 (repair)was the least utilized. Moreover, mixed proficiency groups showed the most significant increases in strategic interaction, particularly during information gap tasks, aligning with previous research. This study supports prior findings, demonstrating that strategy instruction can enhance strategic interaction in Korean EFL settings, especially in mixed proficiency groups and tasks requiring collaboration.