ABSTRACT
Underachieving EFL students have attributional profiles characterized by low self-esteem and poor expectancy of success in oral communicative situations. Current strategy training programs are not likely to have much effect on their oral communicative competence because their maladaptive attributional profiles averse the effect of training and hinder strategy transferability. Reframing these maladaptive attributional frameworks into ones that accommodate strategy instruction may provide a viable solution to the oral communication deficits of those underachievers particularly when combined with cognitive strategy interventions. The current study aimed at designing a training program pairing attributional retraining with oral communication strategy instruction and field-testing its impact on remedying oral communication deficits of the underachieving EFL students. More specifically, the study investigated the immediate and delayed impact of pairing attributional retraining with oral communication strategy instruction on developing the oral communicative competence and reducing communication apprehension of EFL underachievers at the Teachers’ College of Riyadh. For this end, the suggested training program was administered to a cohort of 49 EFL underachievers who were randomly divided into an experimental group (N=25) and a control group (N=24). The experimental group students studied the suggested program incorporating attributional retraining with oral communication strategy instruction whereas the control group students received oral communication strategy instruction without attributional retraining. Findings of the study indicated that pairing attributional retraining with strategy instruction was more effective than strategy instruction alone in developing oral communicative competence and reducing oral communication apprehension of the EFL underachievers. Immediate and delayed testing of oral communicative competence and oral communication apprehension indicated that the experimental treatment was more likely to enhance strategy transferability and maximize the long-run benefits of training. Recommendations and suggestions for further research are provided.