Fluency in Second Language Testing: Insights From Different Disciplines

Abstract

This article considers the construct of fluency in second language assessment and how it might be informed by research in applied linguistics. It briefly describes the way fluency is conceptualized in four language tests, as embodied in their respective assessment criteria, to show where the field is at present. The article then takes into account recent insights from applied linguistics, and from the fields of psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics. The article questions the current conceptualization of fluency in language testing, in which it is defined as a concept that should be sought in the ear of the beholder, and where disfluency is only seen as a deficit. Future research should focus on finding ways to ensure that the measures used in testing reflect the ability to talk fluently and efficiently, rather than measures that only reflect listeners' impressions about such ability, and to show that these can be marked appropriately and reliably.

Aspects of Fluency Across Assessed Levels of Speaking Proficiency

“…The results suggest that speed and composite measures consistently distinguish fluency across proficiency levels, that length of silent pauses is a key characteristic of low‐proficiency performance (A2), and that frequency of silent pauses distinguishes the lower (A2 and B1) from higher proficiency levels. Notwithstanding the significance of such findings for fluency research and measurement, and in line with other researchers in the field (de Jong, ; Housen et al., ; Kormos, ; Skehan, , ; Tavakoli & Hunter, ), we argue that adopting a more fine‐grained approach to analyzing fluency can not only help develop a better understanding of how L2 is processed and produced, but it can also contribute toward the development of an L2 speech production model. In this regard, the current study has revealed interesting differences between the fluency construct at different proficiency levels, implying that there may be different processes at work when speakers of different proficiency levels produce L2.…”

“…Fluency is one of the most common criteria featured in both holistic and analytic rating scales in many standardized tests of speaking, such as Cambridge General English tests, IELTS, TOEFL iBT (de Jong, ). Aspects of fluency featured in these rating scales include: length of speech, hesitation, repetition, self‐correction, flow of speech, pauses, speed of speech, rhythm, false starts, and evenness of speech.…”

“…Depending on the construct of a test, fluency features can be combined with other linguistic features to form one analytic scale (e.g., fluency and coherence in IELTS, delivery including both fluency and pronunciation in TOEFL iBT). While there seems to be a general consensus about the importance of fluency as a key component of L2 proficiency, the fluency descriptors in speaking tests tend to receive limited empirical validation and often appear to have been developed intuitively (de Jong, , ; Tavakoli et al., ). The existing evidence in publicly available rating descriptors suggests that fluency is usually assessed in a rather limited or ambiguous way, with only a few of its fundamental aspects presented in the rating scales (de Jong, ; Tavakoli et al., ).…”

Investigating Teachers’ Perceptions of Fluency

“…Automaticity also loads with these utterance fluency elements in the analysis for the whole group. This accords well with findings by others (De Jong, 2018;Park, 2016). Recent evidence from research into acoustic/temporal aspects of fluency suggests there are threshold levels for acoustic factors such as speech rate and length or number of pauses, which need to be achieved if a speaker is to be considered fluent (Park, 2016).…”

Oral Communication Proficiency in English of the Grade 5 Pupils

“…The term oral proficiency should not be taken synonymously to oral fluency especially in the second language assessment. De Jong (2018) and Kormo and Dénes (2004) consider fluency as one feature of oral proficiency.…”