Chinese second language learners' speaking development during study abroad: Complexity, accuracy and fluency
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Date
2024-02-21
Authors
Guo, Rongrong
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Clifford Media International , Hong Kong
Published Version
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to contribute to the literature on second language oral Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF) development by assessing English-speaking learners of Chinese during Study Abroad (SA) in China, which have rarely been investigated in an Irish context. Moreover, relationships between the CAF constructs and those between the sub-constructs impacted by Study Abroad (SA) were discussed. Data were collected from ten English-speaking undergraduates of an Irish university from two curricular oral tests during pre- and post- 10 months’ SA. Performance was elicited by topics, which were relative to the learning content when the learners were in the formal instruction context. To exhibit an in-depth evaluation of oral performance of instructed L2 Mandarin learners, fourteen CAF measures were analysed. The effects of SA on oral performance were explored by paired-samples t-tests. The results showed that the SA benefits oral gains in terms of speech fluidity, syntactic complexity (length and subordination), and lexical sophistication. Generalized from the analysis, trade-off effects are observed prevailingly between CAF constructs, while simultaneous improvements are present within CAF. This is attributable to the study abroad experience as well as the use of rehearsed monologue tasks in the study (Wright, 2020). It has shown that complexity and fluency were enhanced by pre-task planning (Skehan, 2009c; Skehan & Foster, 2001). Based on the findings, the study also provides pedagogical implications for the development of L2 Chinese oral performance in a university teaching setting.
Description
Keywords
Chinese second language learners , Study abroad , Complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) , Chinese language
Citation
Guo, R. (2024)‘Chinese second language learners’ speaking development during study abroad: complexity, accuracy and fluency’ , International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching, 5 (2), pp. 54-72. Available at: https://doi.org/10.46451/ijclt.20240206.