Speech fluency: a result of oral language proficiency?

Hadži, Vesna Požgaj; Horga, Damir; Bulc, Tatjana Balažic

doi:10.4312/linguistica.52.1.87-100

Cited by 4 publications

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“…According to Bulc, Hadzi, and Horga (2010), speech fluency could be defined as "speech at a natural rate without many hesitations, pauses, repetitions, reformulation, filler words and filled or unfilled pauses" (p. 88).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting EFL Learners’ Susceptibility to Various Disfluency Types Based on Gender and Age

Minavandchal

Salimi

2021

Psycholing.

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The aim of the current study is to investigate the relationship of production of speech disfluencies in EFL learners based on gender and age through regression modeling. Gender and age have been examined to influence the production of disfluencies in both native and nonnative speakers so it’s an important issue since fluency and disfluency are crucial aspects of language learning, however, the influence of age and gender on disfluency remains a controversial issue with studies often producing conflicting results with one another. Methods. This study took a new approach to this subject as we produced regression models which can predict the likelihood of production of each disfluency type based on speakers’ age and gender. In order to do this 40 Iranian advanced EFL learners (20 male, 20 female) in four age groups (youth 19–24, young adults 25–30, adults 31–44, and older adults 45+) took part in the study. Later semi-structured interviews with a variety of questions regarding different topics were conducted and participants’ responses were first recorded and then transcribed. The frequency of occurrence of each disfluency type in participants’ speech samples formed our data. This data was then used for our regression analysis. Results. Our findings indicated that, while filled pauses are the most frequently produced disfluency in both genders and all age groups, female speakers are more likely to produce hesitations in their speech compared to male speakers. We also found out that, older adults are less likely to produce filled pauses in their speech compared to younger speakers. With Further analyses, we also investigated the likelihood of producing certain disfluency types over other ones based on age and gender and how this may help instructors. Conclusions. Based on our findings, it can be concluded that all six types of disfluencies are produced by the Iranian EFL learners. Also, we found that, filled pauses, hesitations, and repetitions are by far the most frequently produced disfluency types by Iranian EFL learners, respectively.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting EFL Learners’ Susceptibility to Various Disfluency Types Based on Gender and Age

Minavandchal

Salimi

2021

Psycholing.

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“…Despite the extensive amount of research on oral communication fluency, there is still a relative lack of consistency among (Karimy & Pishkar, 2017;Požgaj, Horga & Balazic, 2012;Segalowitz & Freed, 2004) Applied Linguistics researchers in defining this construct. Oral fluency "refers to those aspects of oral performance having to do with the fluidity or 'smoothness' of language use" (Segalowitz & Freed, 2004, p. 175).…”

Section: Fluency In Oral Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proposing a Theoretical and State-of-the-Art Didactic Model to Balance Oral Communication Fluency and Accuracy in English as a Foreign Language

Robaina¹,

Larenas

2019

Rev. Educación

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The profile of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education programs in Chile requires graduates to communicate effectively and master phonetic-phonological, lexical, morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of the English language. Graduates should possess an advanced level of oral proficiency which entails an adequate balance of fluency and accuracy in oral communication. Attaining a correct balance between oral fluency and accuracy from the start of EFL pre-service teacher training programs is currently a goal of Chilean Universities. The objective of this article is to analyze EFL oral communication development and propose a theory-based didactic model to address and overcome EFL teacher constraints in Chile (first year EFL pre-service teachers) regarding fluency and accuracy in oral communication development. The proposed didactic model is based on a theoretical revision of constructs in Second Language Teaching literature. The proposed model contributes to the developing research that can support the progress of fluency and accuracy in EFL pre-service teacher oral communication, which is limited by second/foreign language teaching theories, methodologies and approaches which require further study.

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“My French is rusty”: Proficiency and bilingual gesture use in a majority English community

Aziz

Nicoladis

2018

Bilingualism

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Gestures serve many functions, including aiding language access and message construction, particularly in spatial tasks. Some researchers have argued that gesture frequency is linked to proficiency in bilinguals, although results have been inconsistent. We tested Nicoladis’ (2007) proposal that bilinguals’ proficiency interacts with task: namely, more spatial tasks elicit greater proficiency effects. French–English bilinguals completed a cartoon-retell task (high spatial) and an interview task (low spatial) in both languages. We measured bilingual proficiency categorically by first language (L1) and continuously by assessing receptive vocabulary, oral fluency, and word types. Participants gestured more in the cartoon-retell task, but there were minimal proficiency effects and no interactions between proficiency and task. Interestingly, only participants with English as their L1 gestured more in their second language (L2), potentially due to ‘rustiness’, or lexical access difficulties in French from low usage in the majority English community.

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Speech fluency: a result of oral language proficiency?

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Predicting EFL Learners’ Susceptibility to Various Disfluency Types Based on Gender and Age

Predicting EFL Learners’ Susceptibility to Various Disfluency Types Based on Gender and Age

Proposing a Theoretical and State-of-the-Art Didactic Model to Balance Oral Communication Fluency and Accuracy in English as a Foreign Language

“My French is rusty”: Proficiency and bilingual gesture use in a majority English community

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