How do attention-shift and foreign language anxiety interact with objective and subjective measures of fluency?

Abstract

The present study investigated whether a distinct link exists between attention-shift, foreign language anxiety (FLA) and both a subjective and an objective measure of oral fluency. Participants were 34 French first language (L1) English second language (L2) speakers. Oral production data were collected through a picture-cued narration task and analysed using both oral fluency measures. We used a measure of attention-shift capacity and a measure of FLA. Results first show strong correlations between both fluency measures. Additionally, both measures of fluency were negatively correlated with FLA and attention-shift. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that only the subjective measure was explained by both attention-shift capacity and FLA, the objective one only being explained by FLA. The results suggest that subjective measures, while highly correlated with objective ones, may detect qualities of oral fluency not detected by objective measures.