The relationship between L1 fluency and L2 fluency across difference proficiency levels

​

Troy Cox and Wendy Smemoe
Brigham Young University

​
Our understanding of oral temporal fluency (i.e., speech rate, pauses, and hesitations) in a second language (L2) has increased greatly in the past several years, along with our understanding of its relationship to overall proficiency, language processing, and automaticity (i.e., Brand & Gotz, 2011; Segalowitz, 2007).  However, the role of the speaker’s fluency in their native language (L1) on L2 fluency is still not understood.  Few studies have examined this relationship, and these studies have examined few L1/L2 relationships across few proficiency levels (Scanlon, 1987; Derwing et al., 2009). Thus, the influence of L1 fluency on L2 fluency development is still unclear.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of native language (L1) fluency and L2 proficiency level on features of L2 temporal fluency.  Over one hundred English as a second language (ESL) students participated from five L1 backgrounds (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese) and 9 proficiency levels (novice high to advanced high on the ACTFL scale). Participants were asked to describe 4 pictures stories, 2 in their L1 and 2 in their L2.  Several fluency measures including unfilled pauses, speech rate, and articulation rate were analyzed using the Praat script described in de Jong and Wempe (2007).  These fluency measures in the L1 were compared to those in the L2. The results of this analysis revealed that all features were highly correlated across the two languages, that these correlations were stronger for lower than higher proficiency speakers, and that differences in the number and type of pauses, as well as speaking rate, differed across L1s.  These results suggest that fluency reveals more than processing constraints aggregated by learning an L2, and suggest that measuring L1 fluency is important in any investigation of L2 fluency.