Monitoring – key factor in the development of fluent speech: Case study of German as foreign language

Abstract

Distributions of self-repairs, ratios of self-repairs and errors, as well as self-analysis, provide indirect information on the sensitivity of the speech monitoring system to different types of errors, inadequacies, and hesitations. Recent research indicates that certain procedures have positive effects on speech monitoring as the key factor in promoting speech fluency development. This research involved first-year graduate students of German studies at the University of Split. The aim of this research was to examine the extent to which respondents, using self-assessment, notice speech errors and hesitations in their speech in the first and repeated performance of two speech tasks (dialogue and narration). In addition, the intention was to determine if there were any changes in the self-monitoring behaviour related to different types of tasks and different conditions (first and/or repeated performance). The obtained results indicate that the speakers’ control mechanism in the first performance, in both task types, was directed towards grammatical/lexical accuracy, while in the repeated performance, in both task types, it was predominantly directed towards hesitations. The analysis of retrospective comments confirms that the absolute majority of respondents point out that the attention in the first performance was directed towards grammatical and lexical errors, while in the repeated performance, it was more directed towards incorrect pronunciation and hesitations.