This study examines the relationship between the repetition of oral monologue tasks and immediate gains in L2 fluency. It considers the effect of aural-oral task repetition on speech rate, frequency of clause-final and midclause filled pauses, and overt self-repairs across different task types and proficiency levels and relates these findings to specific stages of L2 speech production (conceptualization, formulation, and monitoring). Thirty-two Japanese learners of English sampled at three levels of proficiency completed three oral communication tasks (instruction, narration, and opinion) six times. Results revealed that immediate aural-oral same task repetition was related to gains in oral fluency regardless of proficiency level or task type. Overall gains in speech rate were the largest across the first three performances of each task type but continued until the fifth performance. More specifically, however, clause-final pauses decreased until the second performance, midclause pauses decreased up to the fourth, and self-repairs decreased only after the fourth performance, indicating that task repetition may have been differentially related to specific stages in the speech production process.
This study investigates the benefits of designing second language (L2) learning tasks to operate on learner-generated content (related to actual content in their lives and experiences) as opposed to teacher-generated content typical of current approaches to L2 task design (fictitious ideas and events created to provide an opportunity for meaningful language use). Thirty-two Japanese learners completed parallel versions of narrative tasks, which operated on learner-generated content and teacher-generated content respectively. Learner engagement in L2 use was measured in terms of behavioral, cognitive, and social components: behavioral engagement was measured in terms of effort and persistence in task completion; cognitive engagement in terms of attention to elaborating and clarifying content; and social engagement in terms of participants’ affiliation in the discourse. Results indicate that tasks operating on learner-generated as opposed to teacher-generated content had positive effects on all aspects of engagement in L2 use during task performance. Furthermore, participants’ affective responses to the respective conditions as reflected in a post-performance questionnaire corroborated the results for performance. This indicates that learners were also more affectively engaged in the performance of the tasks in the learner-generated content condition than they were in those in the teacher-generated content condition.
This study investigates learner engagement in pedagogic task performance by triangulating multiple sources of data to gain insight into the cognitive and affective processes that take place on a range of tasks and how they engage learners of different target languages. The study provides a detailed analysis of 4 learners’ second language (L2) performance (2 first language [L1] Japanese learners of English; 2 L1 Japanese learners of Chinese). All learners completed an identical set of 12 communication tasks in 3 discourse genres (instruction, narrative, and opinion) in a learner‐generated (LGC) and teacher‐generated content (TGC) condition. The performances were followed by immediate stimulated video recalls and questionnaires on perceived levels of anxiety and motivation during each task. Triangulation of these data sources revealed that both the English and Chinese learners were more socially and emotionally engaged in LGC tasks than in TGC tasks and that this engagement was associated with more fluent and accurate, but less complex, speech. The difference between the Chinese and English learners was in their self‐reported preferences and levels of anxiety and motivation while performing the tasks in the respective conditions. Based on the learners’ background profiles, this difference in subjective response to the tasks is attributed to previous experience with formal L2 instruction.
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