L2 Oral Performance Research Articles

The combined effects of task repetition and post-task teacher-corrected transcribing on complexity, accuracy and fluency of L2 oral performance

Abstract Given the benefits of task repetition, post-task transcribing and teacher corrective feedback, examining the combined effects of task repetition and post-task teacher-corrected transcribing is promised to produce gains in L2 oral performance. In recognition of this potential, this study examined the effects of task repetition combined with post-task teacher-corrected transcribing (TRPTCT) on the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) of L2 oral performance and CAF gains over time. On a sample of 27 second year English-majors in a Vietnamese university, they were randomly divided into three groups including TRPTCT, task repetition (TR), and control groups. They later orally performed three picture description tasks, which were measured in terms of CAF. Results showed that the TRPTCT condition was superior to the TR condition at increasing complexity and fluency for the students’ repeated task performances. Additionally, the TRPTCT condition was better at fostering accuracy in verb forms and complexity in terms of clause subordination and length of language production as learning gains in the new task performance.

Do young EFL learners benefit from task repetition?

ABSTRACT Previous research has shown that task repetition can positively affect L2 oral performance. However, few studies have explored the effects of task repetition on young EFL learners’ production. Also, task repetition research has paid little attention to effects of spacing examined through longer time intervals between the two occasions of task performance. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of immediate and delayed task repetition on young learners’ oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Forty-four learners aged between 10 and 12 studying at a private language institute in Tehran, Iran, were randomly assigned to one of the three groups in the study: no repetition (NR), immediate task repetition (ITR) and delayed task repetition (DTR). The participants were asked to watch a short silent movie and narrate its story. In the ITR condition, participants repeated the task immediately after their first enactment; the DTR group repeated the same task after 1 month ; and the NR group carried out the task only once. The results showed that ITR had positive impacts on all the three areas of speech production, while DTR could improve accuracy and partly fluency. Also, among the examined areas of oral language production, complexity was found to be the least affected area.

The impact of Danmaku-based and synchronous peer feedback on L2 oral performance: A mixed-method investigation.

Advancement of research in education has propelled the augmentation of theoretical and practical knowledge in learning-oriented feedback. In recent years, the channels, modes, and orientations of feedback became manifold. Copious empirical evidence from the body of literature supported the strength of feedback in enhancing learning outcomes and promoting the motivation of learners. However, compared to the popularity in implementation and fruitfulness of findings in other educational domains, the application of state-of-the-art technology-enhanced feedback in fostering students' L2 oral abilities remain few and far between. To address the knowledge gap, the present study endeavored to investigate the effect of Danmaku-based and synchronous peer feedback on L2 oral performance and the acceptance thereof among students. Adopting a mixed-method design, the study recruited 74 (n = 74) undergraduate English majors from a Chinese university for a 16-week 2x2 experiment. The collected data were analyzed through statistical and thematic analysis respectively. The findings revealed that Danmaku-based and synchronous peer feed-back was impactful on students' performance in L2 oral production. Furthermore, the impacts of peer feedback on subdomains of L2 competence were statistically analyzed. Regarding students' perceptions, the incorporation of peer feedback was generally favored by participants who were satisfied and motivated in the learning process but lacked confidence in their assessment literacy. Furthermore, students expressed their agreement with the benefit of reflective learning and the subsequent enrichment in knowledge and horizon. The research was significant for its conceptual and practical contribution for follow-up researchers and educators in L2 education and learning-oriented feedback.

How Working Memory and Prior Vocabulary Knowledge Influence the Impact of Task Repetition on L2 Oral Performance: Insights into Vietnamese EFL Learners

The present study investigates the effect of task repetition and individual differences on Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ lexical use and fluency in oral task performance. The study adopts a within-subjects design with forty students performing the same narrative task twice. Students also completed two prior vocabulary knowledge tests (i.e., a receptive size test and a productive level test) and two working memory tests (i.e., a backward-span task and a Vietnamese-version operation-span task). Lexical complexity was measured in two aspects (i.e., lexical sophistication and lexical diversity). Fluency was assessed in terms of articulation rate. Unlike previous studies, our study surprisingly did not reveal an effect of task repetition on lexical complexity and fluency. Interestingly, prior vocabulary knowledge and working memory appeared to be good predictors of learners’ lexical complexity and fluency.

Influence of planning time and task type on lexis in L2 oral performance

Building up a stock of vocabulary with operational sufficiency is a formidable task for L2 learners. An adequate portion of their vocabulary needs to be readily accessible and retrievable for productive use in real communication. This study investigated the possible effects of the availability of planning time and task type on L2 learners’ lexical production in oral performance. It employed a 2x2 experimental design, where there were two independent variables (planning time and task type), each with two levels (no planning and with planning; descriptive and narrative). Participants were 102 (51 females and 51 males) intermediate level Preparatory School university students at an English-medium university in Turkey. The 51 dyads performed oral descriptive and narrative tasks under no planning and with planning conditions. The oral production of the participants were analyzed using two major measures: lexical complexity, and lexical accuracy. Lexical complexity was measured by word length in syllables and by lexical richness/variation with sub-measures of type-token ratio, lexical word range, grammatical word range, lexical-to-grammatical ratio and lexical density. Lexical accuracy was measured by the number of error-free clauses. The results revealed that lexical use is predominantly determined by task type rather than planning time. Narrative tasks elicited more complex and richer vocabulary than descriptive tasks. Availability of planning time appeared to positively influence the accuracy of lexis used, but at the cost of lower degree of richness/variation. The results also indicated that a focus on lexis could be induced through task design, which fosters various aspects of L2 lexical use.

The Effect of Planning on Accuracy in Verbal Agreement in L2 Oral Performance

Accuracy is widely recognized as one of the main dimensions in evaluating task-based oral performance. Indicators of accuracy vary in the literature of the effects of pre-task planning on the oral production. Enlightened by previous studies in pre-task planning and third-person singular -s, this article intends to find out whether the rate of suppliance of thematic verbal agreement increases as a result of pre-task planning, and whether the rate of suppliance of thematic verbal agreement in third-person singular -s increases as a result of pre-task planning. A case study is carried on one subject who makes oral descriptions of a same graph which shows the number of people at London underground station from 6:00 to 22:00 on two separate occasions. The results of this study show that pre-task planning may have significant effect on accuracy of L2 oral output in thematic verbal agreement as a whole, but it may not affect L2 learners in their use of third-person singular -s.
  

How Does Creativity Affect Second Language Speech Production? The Moderating Role of Speaking Task Type

AbstractOur study investigated the role of creativity in second language (L2) speech production using a picture narrative and an open‐ended argumentative task administered to 60 Japanese‐speaking learners of English. Following recent findings in the field of psychology, the participants’ creativity was assessed in terms of cognitive dimensions (divergent thinking fluency, convergent thinking) and a personality dimension (openness to experience). Participants’ speaking performance was analyzed using a set of complexity, accuracy, fluency and discourse measures. The results of hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that both divergent thinking fluency and convergent thinking played a role in the cohesion of speech (indexed by the frequency of connectives) in both speaking tasks, while only in the argumentative task did divergent thinking fluency contribute to an increase in the amount of information (indexed by the total number of words produced). Meanwhile, openness to experience was found to enhance syntactic and lexical complexity only in the picture narrative task. These findings suggest that speakers’ creativity is linked to syntactic and lexical sophistication and discourse aspects of L2 oral performance, all of which are related to conceptualization processes in L2 speech production.

Impact of task preparedness on L2 oral performance and strategy use

AbstractThe present study sets out to explore the effects of pre-task planning and unpressured on-line planning on L2 learners’ oral performance and their choices of planning strategies in a dialogic task condition. Forty-eight intermediate Chinese EFL learners were invited to perform the task and were then assigned to four groups, each with a different planning condition. Complexity, accuracy, and fluency of their oral production were measured. Results indicated that in the dialogic task condition, unpressured on-line planning raised syntactic complexity. Strikingly, pre-task planning did not improve L2 performance in all dimensions. Additionally, a trade-off effect was found between complexity and accuracy. Retrospective interviews were conducted to explore strategies employed by the participants and their perceptions of task preparedness. Results showed that the participants preferred to use metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies in the dialogic task. Both advantages and limitations were identified by the participants regarding different planning conditions.

Effect of Interaction Intensity on Alignment and EFL Learners’ Oral Production in the Reading-Speaking Integrated Continuation Task

Abstract This study aims to uncover the relationship between interaction and alignment in a reading-speaking integrated continuation task, especially focusing on whether an increase in interaction intensity can lead to stronger alignment and further generate positive effects on L2 learning. To this end, 31 participants were asked to perform reading-speaking integrated continuation tasks under three different conditions featuring low, medium and high interaction intensity respectively. The results showed that 1) alignment existed in the reading-speaking integrated continuation task; 2) increasing interaction intensity generated stronger alignment at both linguistic and situational levels; 3) growing interaction intensity contributed to more coherent and accurate L2 oral production. These findings not only proved the workings of mind-body-world alignment, but also testified that increasing interaction intensity could bring about a stronger alignment effect (Wang, 2010), which then contributed to better L2 oral performance. These findings confirm again the role of interaction in L2 learning and suggest that alignment could possibly be a mediating factor that links interaction and L2 development. Pedagogical implications for teaching and learning L2 speaking are discussed.

Participatory structure of planning and cognitive task complexity in L2 oral performance: a processing perspective

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact on L2 oral performance of participatory structure of strategic planning (individual vs. collaborative pair planning) and task complexity (simple vs. complex tasks) defined according to the number of elements involved. It also explores individual and collaborative planners’ planning behaviours prior to simple vs. complex tasks. Forty-eight Iranian intermediate learners were assigned to one of the two conditions: individual planning (IndP) and collaborative planning in pairs (ColP) groups. Participants then engaged in planning before completing four oral tasks: two simple and two complex. After each task, they were interviewed about their planning behaviours. Quantitative results showed that fluency and complexity improved as a function of task complexity and collaborative planning. The impact of collaborative planning was greater on the complex tasks in all measures except accuracy. Qualitative analysis revealed that, compared to the individual planners, the collaborative planners used more planning behaviours associated with schematic planning, cognitive planning and content formulation prior to the complex tasks. The findings highlight that careful task design (here, selecting complex tasks with collaborative planning) has real potential to help enhance learners enhance their L2 oral production.

Can explicit instruction of formulaic sequences enhance L2 oral fluency?

The role of formulaic language in enhancing L2 oral performance is largely discussed in the literature; however, there is a lack of instructional research. In order to address this issue, the present investigation examined effects of explicit learning and practice of formulaic sequences on L2 utterance fluency with advanced EAP learners. Two groups of freshmen students were assigned as the experimental group and the comparison group. For five weeks, the experimental group studied and practiced 80 formulaic sequences (FS) that frequently occur in spoken academic corpora. The comparison group, on the other hand, learned single academic vocabulary. Target vocabulary in both groups were introduced through concordances and practiced in communicative oral production tasks in a freshmen EAP program. L2 fluency was measured in terms of temporal qualities at three points and compared in a series of repeated measures ANCOVA analyses, with L1 fluency included as covariate. Results showed that both groups improved significantly in speed fluency from pretest to posttest and the FS group outperformed the comparison group in pruned speech rate, the global fluency measure. Effects of FS instruction were maintained on delayed posttest. Implications of the findings were discussed.

The contributions of working memory and pre-task explicit instruction to L2 oral performance

This study investigates to what extent working memory (WM) and explicit instruction in the pre-task stage predict the quality of L2 oral performance on a focused task. The WM of 103 Iranian low-proficiency learners of English was measured using an operation span task. Then, they were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Both groups performed a focused story-retelling task designed to elicit English relative clauses. Prior to task performance, they both had 5 min of planning time, yet the experimental group also received explicit instruction during that time span. The results indicated that explicit instruction is a negative predictor of fluent speech with positive contributions to global complexity and the rate and accuracy of relativization. Moreover, WM was found to be a positive predictor of global complexity and fluency together with accurate and frequent relativization. The findings provide pieces of evidence towards revisiting the dispute over the desirability of drawing learners’ attention to specific linguistic forms before task performance. The positive and strong contributions of WM raise awareness about the possibility that learners may treat tasks differently due to their individual differences.

Planning conditions (strategic planning, task repetition, and joint planning), cognitive task complexity, and task type: Effects on L2 oral performance

The present study investigates the role of different planning conditions, cognitive task complexity along ± number of elements, and different task types in learners’ L2 oral performance. To this end, 98 Iranian learners at the intermediate level were randomly divided into four planning groups, namely, task repetition, strategic planning, joint planning (a combination of task repetition & strategic planning), and no planning. Each group performed simple and complex narrations and simple and complex argumentations. The data were scored based on measures of complexity, accuracy, lexical diversity, and fluency. The results indicated that in comparison with the simple tasks, the complex tasks promoted fluency, overall complexity, and lexical complexity, but lessened accuracy and subordination. Compared to the narrations, the argumentations brought about higher speech rate, more subordinated clauses, and greater lexical complexity. Strategic planning and task repetition enhanced fluency and syntactic complexity while their combination improved accuracy as well. The impact of task complexity was greater with the argumentations, and the utility of planning differed based on cognitive task complexity and the nature of task types. Some trade-offs were observed not only between accuracy and syntactic complexity but also between two measures of syntactic complexity, which supports the Trade-off Hypothesis.

O Planejamento leva à Perfeição? Os Efeitos de Diferentes Condições de Planejamento Pré-Tarefa sobre o Desempenho Oral em L2

Este artigo reporta um estudo que investigou os efeitos de diferentes condições de planejamento pré-tarefa sobre o desempenho oral em L2. Vinte e seis aprendizes de inglês de um instituto de línguas realizaram uma tarefa oral na qual tiveram de descrever três figuras, cada uma por um minuto, sob as seguintes condições: não-planejamento, planejamento oral e planejamento escrito. O desempenho oral dos participantes foi examinado em termos de fluência (speech rate unpruned e speech rate pruned), acurácia gramatical (erros por 100 palavras) e densidade lexical (proporção de palavras produzidas com propriedades gramaticais e lexicais). As medidas de produção oral foram comparadas estatisticamente de acordo com as condições de planejamento, seguindo um design intra-sujeitos. Os resultados mostram que, em geral, planejar afetou positivamente a performance oral em L2, especialmente a fluência. Os aprendizes realizaram melhor a tarefa quando tiveram pelo menos um minuto para elaborar sua fala quando comparado à condição que não dispunha de tempo de planejamento. Entretanto, ao comparar as condições oral e escrita, uma não se sobressaiu a outra, possivelmente pelo modo como foram operacionalizadas. Interpretado de outra forma, isto pode indicar que o planejamento pré-tarefa seja benéfico independentemente da forma que assuma. Este estudo de pequena escala pode contribuir para discussões teóricas acerca da produção oral em L2 e o tratamento pedagógico do planejamento oral na sala de aula de L2.

Phonological short-term memory capacity and L2 oral performance

AbstractPhonological short-term memory (PSTM) capacity is the ability to retain verbal information briefly (Archibald & Gathercole, 2006). Since PSTM facilitates the storage of verbal material, one expects a positive relationship between PSTM and several aspects of second language (L2) learning. Some studies have found a relationship between PSTM and oral production skills, such as fluency (e.g.,O’Brien et al., 2006). This paper reports on the results of a study that looked at the inter-relations between complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF), and between these dimensions and PSTM. One hundred and thirty-five L2 learners of Spanish participated in the study. Results showed that performance in one L2 speech dimension did not have a negative impact on performance in another dimension, but that as complexity increased or decreased, there was a better chance of fluency than accuracy also increasing or decreasing. PSTM capacity was related to complexity and fluency, but not to accuracy. These results were interpreted as lending some support to Skehan’s Trade-off Hypothesis (Skehan, 2009).

Effects of Task Familiarity and Task Repetition on Iranian EFL Learners’ Engagement in L2 Oral Performance

The present study aimed at investigating the effects of content familiarity and task repetition on Iranian EFL learners’ engagement in L2 oral performance. To this end, 44 intermediate EFL learners (17 males and 27 females) from Nahal, Nik, Rastak and Noyan English institutes in Isfahan, Iran, whose age range from 16 to 25, were selected through Oxford Placement Test (OPT). To collect the data, one familiar narrative task (events in Iran) and one unfamiliar task (events in China) were selected for the participants to narrate each one two times. After this phase, a stimulated recall interview was conducted with all the selected participants to capture their inner thoughts about speech production and affective responses to content familiarity and task repetition. After the data collection, the data were analyzed to compare the two familiar and unfamiliar topics to explore the effect of familiarity on learners’ engagement in Oral performance, and also to find the effects of task repetition in both familiar and unfamiliar tasks. In addition, he data obtained from the interview were analyzed through content analysis. The results of this study revealed that there was a significant difference between the level of behavioral and cognitive engagement between the familiar and unfamiliar task and also between the first and the second performances of each. Moreover, potential interaction effect was spotted between content familiarity and task repetition in terms of the four indicators.

“Are You Into Beer Pong?” Exploring Question-Answer Sequences in an L2 Oral Performance Assessment

ABSTRACTDespite the frequent occurrence of yes/no questions in naturalistic talk-in-interaction, there is widespread concern that yes/no questions only allow predetermined answers and limit L2 learners’ performance in language assessment contexts. Drawing upon audio-recordings of role-play conversations between an L1 American English speaker and 104 L2 English learners, we use conversation analysis to examine how L2 learners respond to yes/no questions in an oral performance assessment. The analysis was guided by the following research questions: (a) How do L2 English learners respond to a yes/no interrogative in a role-play assessment context? (b) How do L2 English learners’ different responses lead to distinct sequences of conversational turns? In our analysis we show that yes/no interrogatives elicit a range of responses (e.g., repair initiation, type-conforming responses, non-type-conforming responses) that result in negotiation of meaning between participants. While turn design and sequence organization features we observed largely align with the existing literature on naturally occurring conversations, we also discuss deviant cases that provide insights into L2 learner discourse. Moreover, we discuss the findings in terms of implications for L2 assessment.

The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency in EFL Learners’ Oral Performance

Over the last three decades, emotional intelligence (EI) has received considerable empirical attention especially in academic context. Following this line of research, the study reported in this paper investigated the relationship between trait EI and EFL learners’ second language (L2) oral performance. A sample of 102 Iranian EFL students, all between 13 and 18 years old (approximately half male and half female), performed an oral narrative task under laboratory conditions and completed the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire-adolescent short form (TEIQue-ASF), which is used to measure global trait EI. The correlational analysis of the results indicated a positive relationship between EI and learners’ L2 oral performance as measured in terms of complexity, accuracy and fluency. Those with higher degree of EI were able to produce more accurate and complex language. The relationship between EI and fluency measures, however, did not reach significance. Findings of this study point to the importance of focusing on learners’ emotions and finding strategies to foster it.
 Keywords: Emotional intelligence, accuracy, complexity, fluency, language achievement

Impacts of Resource Dispersing and Resource Directing Task Dimensions on EFL Learners’ Oral Production

This study was primarily aimed at investigating the effects of simultaneous use of reasoning demand (resource-directing) and prior knowledge (resource-dispersing) on fluency, accuracy, and complexity of L2 oral performance. More, specifically, an attempt was made to investigate how EFL oral production could be affected by ±reasoning demand and ±prior knowledge in the local context of Iran. Thirty male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners whose mother tongue was Persian and whose age ranged between 23 and 29 were chosen as the participants in this study, and a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was utilized. Assigned to two experimental conditions, participants were engaged in a narrative task in which two different wordless picture stories were chosen for data collection. Such statistical operations as t tests and MANOVA were applied to analyze the data. The results obtained from t tests revealed that in ±reasoning demand condition, both complexity and accuracy significantly improved whereas the results for fluency were not statistically significant. In addition, with regard to the ±prior knowledge group, similar results were obtained. In the end, conducting MANOVA revealed that both groups were not different in the pretest; however, utilizing the same procedure for the posttest illustrated a difference between the two groups in terms of their accuracy and complexity, but not their fluency. The results bear some implications for L2 oral production and practice as controlled by teachers and practitioners in EFL contexts.

Impacts of task complexity on the development of L2 oral performance over time

AbstractRobinson’s (2001, Task complexity, task difficulty, and task production: Exploring interactions in a componential framework.