Is Speaking Fluency Strand Necessary for the College Students to Develop in the EFL Class?

Abstract

Abstract-This article aims to explore how the EFL teachers and students treat the development of speaking fluency in the EFL class in terms of the teachers' willingness of promoting speaking fluency for their students and the students' demand and preference of the speaking fluency in the EFL class in China. This study also attempts to identify whether there is a dynamic between these two variables. However, the participants in this study including 40 EFL students with a female dominated demography and 10 domestic EFL teachers were randomly convened from a college. Two sets of questionnaire for these EFL teachers and students are a way to observe the result, since the demand of fluency development is a motivational factor for the EFL learners to practice it, while the teachers' willingness of implementation is an effective variable to promote it. Thus, a ttest is applied to precede this outcome and the results indicated that the teachers' willingness of developing speaking fluency for their students is not sufficient. Their students consequently are not familiar with the way of practicing the speaking fluency. Though these EFL students demand a fluent communicative competence in conversations, there is a lack of time, activity, effort and relevant principle of guiding in the current EFL class. The conclusion of this article is that speaking fluency strand is necessary to the college students and therefore further researches should draw attention on its development in the EFL class in China.Index Terms-fluency, speaking fluency, fluency development, preference of speaking fluency, college EFL students, EFL teaching in China

The Framing of Speech Fluency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) by In-Service Primary School Teachers

“…general, one's own, and EFL primary school students', is indicative of the participants' awareness of the role of speech fluency in EFL teaching and learning. This finding is in contrast with the study that has been conducted by Yang (2014), who indicates that Chinese L1 EFL in-service teachers appear to relegate the role of speech fluency in EFL to an epiphenomenal status. Additionally, the present finding differs in terms of the important role of speech fluency from the results reported by Tavakoli and Hunter (2018), who do not indicate that in-service ESL teachers in their study treat speech fluency as an important aspect of EFL teaching and learning.…”

“…Yang's (2014) findings indicate that the participants appear to ignore speech fluency in their EFL interaction with the students. Yang (2014) argues that the findings are suggestive of the epiphenomenal role of speech fluency in EFL on the part of the participants. Saito and van Poeteren (2012) seek to explore how 120 experienced EFL teachers in Japan rank pronunciation features that they deem to be important for their students to achieve intelligible pronunciation.…”

“…However, there is a substantial body of research that addresses the issue of speech fluency by means of examining in-service teachers' reflections (Butler 2004;Fuchs, Kahn-Horwitz, & Katzir 2019;Tavakoli & Hunter 2018;Saito & van Poeteren 2012;Yang 2014). These studies investigate EFL/ESL teachers' reflections on speech fluency in EFL/ESL contexts in China (Yang 2014), Israel (Fuchs, Kahn-Horwitz, & Katzir 2019), Japan (Saito & van Poeteren 2012), Korea and Taiwan (Butler 2004), and the UK (Tavakoli & Hunter 2018). In particular, Tavakoli and Hunter (2018) seek to explore how ESL teachers define speech fluency in ESL and how they promote speech fluency in an ESL classroom.…”

“…The study by Yang (2014) is set in the EFL context in China, where 10 experienced EFL teachers reflect upon their willingness to facilitate speech fluency in an EFL classroom. Additionally, the participants in the study (Yang 2014) are asked to reflect and rate their communicative strategies of speech fluency in their oral classroom communication with EFL students. Yang's (2014) findings indicate that the participants appear to ignore speech fluency in their EFL interaction with the students.…”

“…Additionally, the participants in the study (Yang 2014) are asked to reflect and rate their communicative strategies of speech fluency in their oral classroom communication with EFL students. Yang's (2014) findings indicate that the participants appear to ignore speech fluency in their EFL interaction with the students. Yang (2014) argues that the findings are suggestive of the epiphenomenal role of speech fluency in EFL on the part of the participants.…”