Fluency is a multifaceted concept used in cognitive sciences and second language (L2) teaching and learning research. Spoken fluency is considered to have cognitive, utterance and perceived fluency dimensions (Segalowitz, 2010; see also Lintunen et al., 2020a), corresponding in written fluency studies to different measures for the writing process and the final product (Cislaru & Olive, 2018; Kowal, 2014; Mutta, 2020). Recently, L2 fluency studies have been frequent, but researchers have called for more comprehensive analyses, for instance, by combining different data sets to examine fluency profiles across spoken and written modes (Lintunen et al., 2020b). Moreover, comparing the L2 learner's fluency profile in their native language (L1) and L2 has been found important to reveal idiosyncratic patterns that are more user-specific rather than part of L2 development.
This presentation combines multimodal analyses of spoken and written fluency and contributes to increasing our knowledge of individual language users' and learners' spoken and written fluency profiles in their L1 and L2. Our data were combined from two larger research projects on spoken and written fluency. We identified 11 university students, who participated in both projects. They performed the tasks in both L1 (Finnish) and L2 (English). The spoken tasks consisted of monologue picture description tasks, and the written tasks were short essays. To collect the written data, we used the graph theory based keystroke logging software GGXLog with a visualization function. To compare the fluency profiles, we analyzed the spoken (e.g. pause lengths, repairs, mean length of runs) and written data measures (e.g. pause times, corrections, length of bursts). Six participants also verbalized on their L1 and L2 writing process and explained their strategic choices. During the presentation, we will present some fluency profiles based on the learners' spoken and written productions.
The preliminary results show that some students are fluent writers both in L1 and L2, which is related to their high proficiency level in L2; they seem to be exposed to English in informal and formal contexts in many ways. The spoken data revealed fluent speech in two languages, with some links in speed, breakdown and repair fluency measures across languages and modes.
References
Cislaru, G. & T. Olive (2018). Le processus de textualisation. Analyse des unités linguistiques de performance écrite. Louvain-la-Neuve: De Boeck Supérieur.
Kowal, I. (2014). Fluency in second language writing: A developmental perspective. Studia Linguistica Universitatis Iagellonicae Cracoviensis, 131, 229–246.
Lintunen, P., M. Mutta & P. Peltonen (2020a). Defining fluency in L2 learning and use. In P. Lintunen, M. Mutta & P. Peltonen (Eds.) Fluency in L2 learning and use. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 1–15.
Lintunen, P., M. Mutta & P. Peltonen (2020b). Synthesising approaches to second language fluency: Implications and future directions. In P. Lintunen, M. Mutta & P. Peltonen (Eds.) Fluency in L2 learning and use. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 186–201.
Mutta, M. (2020). L2 fluency and writer profiles. In P. Lintunen, M. Mutta, P. Peltonen (Eds.) Fluency in L2 learning and use. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 63–80.
Segalowitz, N. (2010). The cognitive bases of second language fluency. New York: Routledge.
