This study aims at investigating the effect that the explicit strategy instruction (henceforth ESI) may have on developing the oral fluency and communication strategy use of Iraqi EFL learners. This study is conducted to present a new technique of teaching that focuses on teaching the learners explicitly certain communication strategies (henceforth CSs), by which, learners can have the ability to manipulate the use of language to compensate for their lack of linguistic knowledge and to be able to manage a conversation and deliver their message. 40 Iraqi EFL university students were distributed into two groups: experimental group and controlled group. The experimental group was taught certain CSs following the explicit strategy instruction, whereas the controlled group was taught according to the communicative approach without any focus on CSs. The students were pre- and post-tested to measure their use of CSs and oral fluency development. A stimulated recall interviews were also held soon after the pre- and post-tests to double check the validity of the CSs identification. They were also asked to fill a self-reported questionnaire twice: at the beginning of the study and at the end of it in order to compensate for any shortage and limitation of data provided by the two methods mentioned above. The self-reported questionnaire gives the opportunity to assess a wider range of CSs. The results showed that the experimental group has significantly developed their use of CSs and this development led to noticeable improvement in their oral fluency. However, the controlled group did not show a significant improvement neither in their use of the CSs nor in their oral fluency.