Fluency is one of the important indicators of oral PLs in second language (L2) tests, such as the IELTS (e.g., Fulcher, 2003). It plays an important role in L2 acquisition and is highlighted as a significant predictor of a speaker's L2 PL (Wright & Tavakoli, 2016). Previous studies pointed out the complex nature of fluency (Tavakoli & Wright, 2020) and reported LFs such as speed of an utterance, pauses, and hesitations could reflect speakers' utterance fluency (Segalowitz, 2016). Breakdown (e.g., pausing), speed (e.g., how fast), and repair (e.g., correction) are indicated as three measures of fluency (e.g., Lahmann et al., 2017). However, no evidence illustrates which measures could best describe the fluency of different PLs and can help to distinguish one PL from the other (Suzuki & Kormos, 2022). The current study analyzed 29 LFs and fixed the research gaps.
According to the descriptors of the IELTS speaking test (https://www.ielts.org/-/media/pdfs/speaking-band-descriptors.ashx), six main features of fluency, including LS, SR, pauses, hesitations, Rs, and SCs, are mainly evaluated by examiners. SR can be considered as the speed, pauses and hesitations as the breakdown, and Rs and SCs as the repair in Lahmann et al. (2017). The current study added one more measure, length.
We measured four sub-features of LS, three sub-features of SR, twenty sub-features of pauses and hesitations, and the total number of R and SC. FPs (e.g., um), SPMs, and SPEs are measured to investigate pauses and hestitations. In this study, SPMs and SPEs are categorized into shorter than 0.4s and equal to or longer than 0.4s. The different performances on the 29 LFs across the four PLs were compared and significant linguistic predictors of English fluency were identified. This study provides great pedagogical value. Currently, teachers' understanding of fluency is in a broad sense, and there is a gap between fluency research and real fluency teaching (Tavakoli & Hunter, 2018). Teachers should focus on the results of this study and give prior instructions and feedback on the 14 features to improve learners' English fluency.
References
Fulcher, G. (2003). Testing second language speaking. Harlow, North Dakota: Pearson Education.
Lahmann, C., Steinkrauss, R., & Schmid, M. S. (2017). Speed, breakdown, and repair: An investigation of fluency in long-term second-language speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism, 21(2), 228-242.
Segalowitz, N. (2016). Second language fluency and its underlying cognitive and social determinants. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 54(2), 79-95.
Suzuki, S., & Kormos, J. (2022). The multidimensionality of second language oral fluency: Interfacing cognitive fluency and utterance fluency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 1-27.
Tavakoli, P., & Hunter, A. M. (2018). Is fluency being 'neglected'in the classroom? Teacher understanding of fluency and related classroom practices. Language Teaching Research, 22(3), 330-349.
Tavakoli, P., & Wright, C. (2020). Second language speech fluency: From research to practice. Cambridge University Press.
Wright, C., & Tavakoli, P. (2016). New directions and developments in defining, analyzing and measuring L2 speech fluency. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 54(2), 73-77.
