Is Speaking Fluency Strand Necessary for the College Students to Develop in the EFL Class?

Abstract

This article aims to explore how the EFL teachers and students treat the development of speaking fluency in the EFL class in terms of the teachers’ willingness of promoting speaking fluency for their students and the students’ demand and preference of the speaking fluency in the EFL class in China. This study also attempts to identify whether there is a dynamic between these two variables. However, the participants in this study including 40 EFL students with a female dominated demography and 10 domestic EFL teachers were randomly convened from a college. Two sets of questionnaire for these EFL teachers and students are a way to observe the result, since the demand of fluency development is a motivational factor for the EFL learners to practice it, while the teachers’ willingness of implementation is an effective variable to promote it. Thus, a t-test is applied to precede this outcome and the results indicated that the teachers’ willingness of developing speaking fluency for their students is not sufficient. Their students consequently are not familiar with the way of practicing the speaking fluency. Though these EFL students demand a fluent communicative competence in conversations, there is a lack of time, activity, effort and relevant principle of guiding in the current EFL class. The conclusion of this article is that speaking fluency strand is necessary to the college students and therefore further researches should draw attention on its development in the EFL class in China.