Педагогіка – Education Science and Education, 2017, Issue 8 44 UDC: 316.28:811.111(07) DOI: https://doi.org/10.24195/2414-4665-2017-8-6 Oleksandr Polishchuk, PhD (Candidate of Philological Sciences), senior lecturer, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, 15, Heroiv Oborony Str., Kyiv, Ukraine COMMUNICATION BARRIERS FACED BY ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS AT A UNIVERSITY LEVEL: FACTORS AND SOLUTIONS Many graduates of Ukrainian higher educational institutions cannot interact with others in English because of numerous barriers to effective communication. The present study aims 1) to investigate the barriers to effective foreign language communication among the university students and 2) to find out some effective solutions to the problem so that both teachers and students could benefit in their objectives and outcomes regarding communication skills. The research outcomes have shown that Ukrainian university students face different issues in communication proficiency though they generally have positive attitude towards learning English. It has been found out that the participants of this study face language (vocabulary and grammar) barriers, psychological barriers (fear of making mistakes, fear of speaking in front of the class), lack of contact hours, inappropriate teaching methods, curricula and textbooks as fac- tors that lead to the failure to effectively communicate in English. Another major factor is that many university students get confused when native speakers use different slang words, proper names, local names, food names, etc. and speak very quickly and may have different accents. The present study also attempted to highlight some strategies for coping with communication barriers such as use of appropriate teaching methods and aids, avoiding frequent error correction, practicing communication skills outside the classroom, exploiting collaborative work and authentic materials, making students aware of cultural diversity and differences as well. Keywords: English as a Foreign Language, communication, communication barriers, coping strategies. Introduction Globalization and expansion of English in the world have changed the English language teaching and learning scenario: teaching nowadays is not just improving reading or writing skills and training students for examinations, but also increasing their employment potential by strengthening their communication skills. Unfortunately, many graduates of Ukrainian higher educational institu- tions cannot interact with others in English because of numerous barriers to effective communication. Commu- nication is considered to be “the activity of conveying information through the exchange of ideas, feelings, in- tentions, expectations, perceptions or commands by speech, writing, gestures and by other means between two or more participants” [1]. This process requires a source/sender who encodes information in the form of a message which is transmitted through a medium/channel to a recipient who then decodes the message and gives necessary response/feedback. Effective communication occurs when it serves the purpose for which it was planned, however, when the desired effect is not achieved, barriers which act as obstacles to effective communication need to be explained. As Nilanjana Pal et al mention, these include “filtering, selective perceptions, information overload, emotions, language, silence, com- munication apprehension or anxiety, gender difference and many other factors” [4, p. 104]. These barriers to effective communication can distort the message at any stage in the communication process. Considering the reasons that create communication barriers, Norrish iden- tified a number of factors that include lack of motivation, first language interference, literal translation from the first language into the target one, overgeneralization of gram- mar rules, material-induced errors, lack of command of the target, interlanguage errors as well [5, p. 21-39]. Due to inappropriate curricula and teaching method- ologies, non-supportive environment, lack of motivation and other reasons, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Ukrainian higher educational institutions do not possess the required proficiency and communicative skills. Thus, the present study aims 1) to investigate the barriers to effective EFL communication among the uni- versity students and 2) to find out some effective solu- tions to the problem so that both teachers and students could benefit in their objectives and outcomes regarding EFL communication skills. Research methods In this paper we use both theoretical and empirical methods of study. We apply literature review method to analyze and interpret the available literature related to the topic and obtain the actual information about the barriers to EFL communication. The carried out experiment in- volved first year EFL students selected from various uni- versity faculties: faculty of Agricultural Management (group 1), Agrobiological faculty (group 2), Mechanical and Technological faculty (group 3), faculty of Design and Engineering (group 4) of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv. A total of 124 students (76 boys and 48 girls) aged 18-20 were selected basically through the purposive sampling method on the basis of convenience and availability and suggested to fill in a questionnaire.