Speech fluency is a manifestation of cognitive speech production processes associated with automatic and on-line processing (Kormos, 2006). It is shaped by individual learner characteristics (e.g. Segalowitz, 2010), such as an L2 learner's willingness to communicate in a second language (WTC), understood as an individual learner's readiness to initiate speaking in L2. Psychological, linguistic and contextual antecedents explain both stable, trait-like predisposition and dynamic, state-like nature of WTC (e.g. MacIntyre, 2020). Although trait-like and state-like WTC are complementary, trait-like WTC is more likely to explain systematic variation in speech fluency (Piechurska-Kuciel, 2018). However, speech fluency has rarely been investigated from the perspective of WTC. Moreover, the existing studies have generated inconsistent results regarding the relationship between WTC and the outcomes of L2 speaking, including speech fluency measures. On the one hand, WTC has been found a significant predictor of fluency (e.g. Nematizadeh, 2021). On the other hand, the link between WTC and speaking performance evaluated with temporal fluency measures has not been established in other research (e.g. Kim et al., 2022). These inconclusive results call for further investigations in order to gain more insights into the complex interplay of L2 speech fluency and WTC.
The current study is a part of a larger Fluency and Disfluency Features in L2 English (FDF2) project and aims to investigate the relationship between L2 speech fluency and trait-like L2 WTC. Samples of L2 monologue speeches from 64 participants were analysed quantitatively for temporal fluency (speech rate, articulation rate, number of silent pauses, repetitions per minute and filled pauses per minute). The levels of the participants' trait-like L2 WTC were established with the help of an adapted version of the Willingness to Communicate Inventory (WTCI) tapping into L2 WTC and the underlying factors shaping L2 WTC (Mystkowska-Wiertelak & Pawlak, 2017). Correlational analyses were conducted between the fluency measures and L2 WTC. The analyses provided some interesting insights into intricate relationships between various fluency and dysfluency measures and L2 WTC as well as its selected antecedents. The results led to several practical implications for fluency teaching and assessment.
References
Kim, J., Zhao, H., & Diskin-Holdaway, C. (2022). Willingness to communicate and second language fluency: Korean-speaking short-term sojourners in Australia. Languages, 7(2), 112.
Kormos, J. (2006). Speech production and second language acquisition. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
MacIntyre, P. (2020). Expanding the theoretical base for the dynamics of willingness to communicate. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 10, 111–31.
Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A., & Pawlak, M. (2017). Willingness to communicate in instructed second language acquisition: Combining a macro- and micro-perspective. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Nematizadeh, S. (2021). Willingness to communicate and second language speech fluency: an idiodynamic investigation of attractor states. Journal for the Psychology of Language Learning, 3(1), 26–49.
Piechurska-Kuciel, E. (2018). Openness to experience as a predictor of L2 WTC. System 72, 190-200.
Segalowitz, N. (2010). Cognitive bases of second language fluency. New York: Routledge.
