Methodologies for spoken fluency development in Chinese ESL classroom

孫婧

Abstract：This essay is aimed at evaluating and developing the way of measuring spoken fluency in ESL classroom for Chinese adult students at Common European Framework of Reference for Languages（CEFR）B1 level and B1 speaking level， which will be linked to relevant materials of speaking activities to provide more detailed suggestions of measuring and improving the learners spoken fluency.

Key words：spoken fluency development

中圖分類號：H319 文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識碼：A 文章編號：1672-1578（2018）08-0003-02

According to Hedge（1993）， one of the definition of fluency in ELT speaking is the ability to "link units of speech together with facility and without strain or inappropriate slowness or undue hesitation”. While rethinking spoken fluency， McCarthy（2009） argued that the traditional ways of measuring spoken fluency， such as calculating the number of words per minute and the length of pauses， are not necessarily be the most effective ways to measure it. As a development， he emphasizes the social consequences of spoken fluency， and claims that spoken fluency should be understand as an interactive achievement， rather than internal and individual achievement only （McCarthy， 2009）.

Tauroza & Allison（1990） state that the context and speech genre have great influence on real speech rate， which is a development of measuring spoken fluency by speed of delivery. Based on this suggestion， McCarthy（2009） claims that speed of delivery should be considered in contexts and interactions as an instrument of accessing fluency. For the measurement and improvement of the learners spoken fluency， the appendix SL1 sets up a clear context shown by the title “Responding to recommendations” and the following introduction of main topic， which provides a target for language learning and producing. In addition， the speaking activity A（role-play） set up a clear social context between tourist and local people with questions and recommendations about shopping. This is beneficial for learners to cooperate to plan their conversation， making the speed of delivery “interactive， jointly produced phenomenon of discourse” （McCarthy，2009，p.15）， and even the pauses can be considered as a process of organizing language and increasing cognitive effort in fluency measurement.

As another measure of spoken fluency in ESL classroom，“automaticity”， is highlighted by McCarthy（2009）， who considers that “automatic retrieval of language forms plays a part in smooth performance and delivery of spoken

language”（p.15）， and emphasizes the main feature of automaticity as“retrieve ready-made chunks of language”

（p.16）. In the appendix SL1， two of the high frequency chunks “you want to” and “you dont want to” are shown in the example conversation， highlighted in the“NATIVE SPEAKER ENGLISH” stage， and included in the conversation practice in a particular context in speaking activity A. According to McCarthy（2009）， providing chunks with fluency and smoothly can enable learners to focus on more transactional and non-pre-assembled aspects of utterance. In order to increase the effectiveness of provided chunks on learners spoken fluency， drills of the target chunks can be added between the “NATIVE SPEAK ENGLISH” and the conversation making stage. This is aimed at making the learners more proficient on producing simple sentences with the chunks and providing correct pronunciation， which is the basis of planning conversations corporately， making the following activities more effective on measuring spoken fluency of learners.

As an aspect of automaticity， turn-taking requires the ability of responding without long pause when it is ones turn to speak， and the turn-construction are divided into two aspects： turn-opening and turn-closing（McCarthy，2009）. According to the study of Tao（2003）， turn -openings provide links and continuity with what had been just said by previous speakers and the function to create smooth transitions and flow. As the complementary of turn-opening， turn-closing “typically transfers to another speaker at predictable points” （McCarthy，2009，p.18）. For example， the turn-openings such as “well” and “no” appears in the examples and sample conversations in appendix SL1， which can be a reference for learners when they are trying to link different peoples talk to express meaning fluently. As the sample conversations mainly provided negative attitudes towards others recommendations， the sentences expressing positive attitudes can be added in this stage as an improvement on the activities， in order to show learners the ways of turn-taking more comprehensively， which is helpful for measuring their spoken fluency（e.g. these can include the turn-openings such as “yes”， or the turn-closings with evaluative adjective such as “wonderful”）. In addition， the co-creation of fluency in a conversation rather is also emphasizes by McCarthy （2009）. In the speaking activity A of appendix SL1， the role play of 3 participants provide opportunities for the learners to practice to use the ways of taking turns in conversation. This provides a context in which the learners ability of interacting with

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partners can also be a standard of measuring spoken fluency.

In conclusion， measuring spoken fluency in EFL classroom for Chinese adult learners in B2 level should be considered not only as the calculation of speed of speech， or internal and monologue-based process， but also the consideration of interactive achievement in conversations with contexts. Based on the development of the ways of measuring spoken fluency， the learners speed of delivery is considered in particular contexts with speakers cooperation， rather than only in individual speech. In addition， automatic retrieval of language forms is also suggested as important measures of spoken fluency， in which providing high frequency chunks is a way of giving learners opportunities to focus on transactional and non-pre-assembled aspects of utterance. As an important aspect of automaticity， turn-construction including turn-opening and turn-closing is also considered as a point in measuring spoken fluency， which requires learners to link and continue previous persons talk and transfer the turn to another speaker. During the evaluation and development of the ways of measuring spoken fluency， the criteria of making judgement of spoken fluency will also be developed， which is beneficial for improving learners spoken fluency in interaction with particular contexts.

References：

[1] Hedge， T. Key Concepts in ELT. ELT Journal[EB/OL]1993，47（3）：275-277. https：//doi.org/10.1093/elt/47.3.275

[2] Tauroza， S & Allison， D Speech rates in British English. 1990. Applied Linguistics，11（1）：90-105.https：//doi.org/10.1093/applin/11.1.90

[3] McCarthy， M. Rethinking spoken fluency[J]. Estudios De Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada，2009，9：11-29.

[4] Tao， H. Turn initiators in spoken English： A corpus-based approach to interaction and grammar. In P. Leistyna & C. F. Meyer （Eds.）. Corpus Analysis： Language Structure and Language Use.2003：187-207. Amsterdam： Rodopi.