جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « fluency » در نشریات گروه « ادبیات و زبان ها »

This study examined how Iranian intermediate EFL learners' writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency were affected by collaborative online writing using Google Docs. The language proficiency of 75 EFL learners was gauged based on their performance on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). They were intermediate male and female EFL learners studying English at three language institutes in Shahrekord. Participants were chosen through convenient sampling. The participants were then split into two groups at random: a Google Docs group, and a control group. Afterwards, learners in the control and experimental groups were given a cause-and-effect prompt as a pre-test, and their writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency were assessed using CAF measures. Following the pre-test, the participants in the experimental groups began a six-week training period in the collaborative environments of Google Docs. The same instructional materials and procedures were presented to the control group, but in a non-collaborative, face-to-face setting. Similar to the writing pre-test, a writing post-test was given to both groups at the end of the intervention, and the writings were graded. In comparison to the conventional methodology, the results obtained showed that the instructional method (Google Docs) is advantageous and effective in enhancing writing skills. The main outcome of this research is that the ease and viability of teaching and learning writing are significantly and meaningfully influenced by giving learners control over their learning through Google Docs.

Though applied linguistics has observed a rise in language acquisition investigations within the complex dynamic systems theory (CDST) paradigm, the majority of research endeavors have been centered on the development of learners' first language (L1) or second language (L2). Limited research exists on multilinguals’ L3 acquisition/development, with even fewer studies considering the development of learners’ speaking skill in L2, and L3. The present study aimed to address these gaps by adopting a CDST approach to analyze the development of fluency, accuracy, and complexity in L2 (English) and L3 (French) speaking skills among five undergraduate Iranian EFL junior students of Translation Studies at Jahrom University over one academic year. The students were at an intermediate level in English language and their French language proficiency was at the beginner level. The participants’ speaking ability in both languages was closely examined and analyzed regarding their development of fluency, accuracy, and complexity within a quantitative design. Findings depicted that the aspects were developed in non-linear, chaotic, and emergent patterns in multilingual learners’ L2 and L3 speaking skill. Moreover, the findings indicated that these elements in multilingual learners' speaking were interconnected and influenced each other over a period of time. The discoveries have some significant implications for L2 and L3 language teaching, such as creating flexible learning and teaching environments, fostering emergent behavior in language classrooms, encouraging learners to have a self-organizing and autonomous role in language learning, having sensitivity to the diverse needs of learners, and fostering a collaborative learning environment.

Children who love to read have been found to read better, having better vocabulary and text comprehension skills. This study investigated the impact of independent reading in improving students’ reading fluency in a multi-grade reading clinic in a semi-urban community private school in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. The research was guided by two research questions: Is traditional classroom phonics instruction enough to develop students’ reading fluency; and can routine independent reading time improve students’ reading fluency? In the study setting, several children were found to read below grade level despite regular synthetic phonics instruction. Thirty-nine students between the ages of 5 and 10 were drawn from a total of 96 students through convenience sampling to take part in the one-sample pre-and post-test study. An initial baseline fluency test eliminated 53.90% of the participants who were reading at an independent level, and the remaining 46.20% were enrolled for the intervention. At the end of the 10-week treatment period, the results showed that about 75% of the participants could read at an independent level while the remaining 25% read at an instructional level. These scores were analyzed using a paired samples t-test to compare reading fluency pre-test and post-test scores. There was a significant difference in the pre-test scores (Mean =90.87), Standard Deviation =4.593 and post-test Mean= 95.55], Standard Deviation=2.139, and p-value = <0.002. This confirms that the impact of IR (Independent Reading) in improving students’ reading fluency was significant. The volume of reading is important for the development of reading competency as it provides students with important practice that helps them gain background knowledge, improve fluency and comprehension, raise motivation, increase reading achievement, and widen vocabulary. 

There is abundant evidence in task-based research suggesting that modifying task design, implementation, and complexity brings about variant effects on language learners’ attention division and performance. The present study was aimed at exploring how modifying task implementation and task complexity variables affects learners’ focus of attention and oral discourse. Task implementation was manipulated along the variable of repetition and task complexity was modified in terms of tense and availability of contextual support (i.e., performing in Here/Now vs. There/Then). To accomplish this objective, task performances of 60 English as foreign language learners were elicited under the following conditions: doing a narrative task once in Here/Now; doing a narrative task twice in Here/Now; doing a narrative task once in There/Then; and doing a narrative task twice in There/Then. The findings revealed that whereas repeating the task in Here/Now enhanced fluency and complexity, repeating the same task in There/Then triggered better performance in all dimensions. The findings may bear implications for researchers and language educators which are presented in connection with pertinent theoretical and practical issues.

This study examined how Iranian intermediate EFL learners' writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency were affected by collaborative online writing using Wikis. The language proficiency of 75 EFL learners was gauged based on their performance on the Oxford Quick Placement Test (OQPT). They were intermediate male and female EFL learners studying English at three language institutes in Shahrekord, Iran. The participants were then split into two groups at random: a Wiki group (WG), and a control group (CG). Afterwards, learners in the control and experimental group were given a cause-and-effect prompt as a pre-test, and their writing complexity, accuracy, and fluency were assessed using CAF measures. Following the pre-test, the participants in the experimental group began a six-week training period in the collaborative environment of Wiki. The same instructional materials and procedures were presented to the control group, but in a non-collaborative, face-to-face setting. Similar to the writing pre-test, a writing post-test was given to both groups at the end of the intervention, and the writings were graded. In comparison to the conventional methodology, the results obtained revealed that the instructional method via Wiki was advantageous and effective in enhancing writing skills. This result is consistent with theories supporting the use of technology-based approaches in EFL writing settings. The main outcome of this research is that the ease and viability of teaching and learning writing are significantly and meaningfully influenced by giving learners control over their learning through Wiki.

Exploring the effects of task planning as an implementational variable on second language (L2) performance has witnessed a noticeable growth over the past years (Ellis, 2005a; Skehan, 2014b). Building on this bulk of research, this study aimed at investigating the effects of three task planning conditions, i.e., pre-task planning (PTP), online planning (OLP), and the combination of pre-task and online planning (PTP+OLP), on young learners’ oral complexity, accuracy, and fluency. The participants were 60 EFL learners aged between 10 and 12 who were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in the study, including the no planning (NP) condition (n = 15 in each group). The participants were asked to watch a short silent video and narrate its story. The results of the statistical analyses indicate that while PTP increases fluency, OLP and OLP+PTP improve both accuracy and syntactic complexity. The findings suggest that teachers of young L2 learners should utilize the promising potentials of different task planning conditions to channel learners’ language production toward more fluent, accurate, and complex production.

The need to use effective new strategies and instruments for the sake of reinforcing the EFL learners’ speaking fluency and accuracy is the main goal of the language learners and teachers. Hence, the present research aimed to discover the effect of online-based gamification on Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking accuracy and speaking fluency by using a quasi-experimental design. Forty Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners from Gooyesh English Language Institute in Mashhad were selected through convenience sampling as the target participants of the study. At the outset of the study, a researcher-made pre-test of speaking fluency and accuracy was administered to the 40 participants of the study. Then, online-based games such as What Happens Next Game, Picture that Story, Online ESL Jigsaw Activity, Show and Tell Game, and ESL A- B gap Fill Game were used to expand the speaking fluency and accuracy of the experimental group's learners while traditional methods were utilized to teach speaking fluency and accuracy to the participants of the control group. Finally, a researcher-made speaking post-test was administered to the participants of both groups. Descriptive statistics and independent samples t-tests were calculated to answer the research questions. The findings displayed that online-based games significantly improved Iranian pre-intermediate EFL learners' speaking accuracy and fluency. However, there was no significant difference between the speaking accuracy and fluency of the participants of the experimental group after using the online-based gamification. Based on the findings of the study, gaming can be considered the most appropriate instrument in the process of learning speaking skills such as speaking fluency and accuracy.

There is ample research evidence indicating that task implementation options and design features differentially affect the linguistic quality of second language (L2) oral output. The overarching aim of the current research was to add to the available body of research findings by investigating what effects the combination of two task implementation options, namely pre-task planning and post-task transcription, exerts on L2 learners’ focus on form. The study involved sixty Iranian L2 learners who were presented with a picture story to be narrated under one of the following four conditions: pre-task planning (PTP), post-task transcription (PTT), both pre-task planning and post-task transcription (PTP/PTT), and control. Findings showed that while pre-task planning increased fluency and complexity, the anticipation of post-task transcription enhanced focus on form as indicated by more accurate performance. More importantly, pre-task planning along with the foreknowledge of post-task transcription of performance made for an exponential increase in accuracy, a gain which was achieved to the detriment of complexity. The outcomes are of pedagogical significance in that they lend support to the efficacy of using pre-task planning opportunity along with the anticipation of post-task transcription to elicit the highest accuracy level while learners are primarily concerned with conveying meaning.

The upsurge of interest in the employment of instructional technologies in learning English has coincided with a growing interest in Online Informal Learning of English (OILE). Considering the under-explored area of speaking skill, the present study investigated the participants’ microgenetic development of speaking ability in terms of accuracy and fluency through informal participation in online activities. Through a stratified purposive sample selection, three adult male and female intermediate-level participants were selected and agreed to engage in some online informal activities such as emailing, watching online videos like TED Talks, participating in webinars, reading online news, etc. The participants’ microgenetic development were tested throughout the study in two-week-time intervals. The results of the audio recorded data highlighted the positive impact of the OILE activities on the development of the spoken accuracy and fluency. The results also suggested that each individual participant was on his/her own unique developmental trajectory and that accuracy and fluency development was not a linear process, and there was a trade-off between accuracy and fluency. The overall findings of the study suggested that learners’ speaking ability, particularly fluency and accuracy, can be enriched by interacting with online informal contexts. This study also confirmed that each learner is on his/ her own developmental trajectory. Learners’ developmental trends are various due to differing categorizations and entrenchments in their lives considering Usage-Based (UB) approach.

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which L2 learners' use of L1 improves their speaking ability. Employing a quasi-experimental research design, the researchers studied the effect of learner code-switching on their speaking accuracy, fluency, and complexity scores. The participants of this study were 117 lower-intermediate students receiving English instruction in eight intact classes in different branches of a private institute. These classes were assigned to two +code-switching and –code-switching treatments randomly. While the participants in the +code-switching group could use Farsi for at most 30 seconds in each activity, those in the –code-switching group were not allowed to switch to their mother tongue. The findings of this study showed that there were no significant differences between the students’ speaking ability in terms of fluency and accuracy across the two groups. The complexity scores of the +code-switching group, however, was significantly higher than those in the –code-switching group. The results also showed a significant improvement in the speaking of the students in both groups. Based on the results, it can be said that that the use of controlled amounts of learner code-switching could be useful when complexity is the focus of an activity. Furthermore, no sign of detrimental effect of learner code-switching was traced in our study.

In the last few decades, tasks as the basic unit in syllabus designing process, and the cognitive complexity of tasks as a fundamental criterion in task sequencing, have attracted the attention of language researchers. At the same time, collaborative task performance has been encouraged due to the researchers' focus on the sociocultural theory proposed by Vygotsky (1978). The present study aimed to investigate the effect of task cognitive complexity on Iranian EFL learners' individual and collaborative written task performance regarding complexity, accuracy, and fluency. To fulfill such a purpose, 70 male and female Iranian intermediate EFL learners were selected as the participants through Oxford Placement Test, from among the undergraduate students of Islamic Azad University of Arak, who had passed two general English grammar courses in two succeeding semesters and were participating in Advanced Writing Course at the time of conducting this research. They were asked to perform some writing tasks both individually and collaboratively, while the cognitive complexity of the tasks (i.e. the reasoning demands and prior planning) was evaluated by the researcher. The analysis of their written productions revealed that when writing individually, with no planning time available, Iranian intermediate EFL learners created more complex texts in their complex tasks and more fluent texts in their simple tasks, and when writing collaboratively, with some planning time available, they produced more fluent texts in their complex tasks.

The use of machine translation to communicate and access information has become increasingly common. Various translation software and systems appear on the Internet to enable interlingual communication. Accelerating translation and reducing its cost are other factors in the increasing popularity of machine translation. Even if the quality of this type of translation is lower than human translation, it is still significant in many ways. The MQM-DQF model provides standards of error typology for objective and quantitative assessment of translation quality. In this model, two criteria (accuracy and fluency) are used to assess machine translation quality. The MQM-DQF model was used in this study to assess the quality of Google Translate performance in translating English and Persian newspaper texts. Five texts from Persian newspapers and five texts from English newspapers were randomly selected and translated by Google Translate both at the sentence level and the whole text. The translated texts were assessed based on the MQM-DQF model. Translation errors were identified and coded at three severity levels: critical, major, and minor errors. By counting the errors and scoring them, the percentage of accuracy and fluency criteria in each of the translated texts was calculated. The results showed that Google Translate performs better in translating texts from Persian into English; furthermore, in sentence-level translation, it performs better than the translation of the whole text. Moreover, translations of different newspaper texts (economic, cultural, sports, political, and scientific) were not of the same quality. </strong> </strong>

Researchers have extensively studied factors that impact the development of fluency in L2 oral production while there is scant evidence regarding task variation-related effects. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of task variation involving group dialogue, dialogue unscrambling, and dialogue completion on Iranian EFL learners’ oral speech fluency. To this end, 80 EFL learners were assigned to three experimental groups (EXG1, EXG2, and EXG3) and one control group shown as CONG. The EXG1 was treated by three tasks, i. e., dialogue completion, dialogue unscrambling, and group dialogue, the EXG2 through two tasks involving dialogue completion and dialogue unscrambling, the EXG3 by dialogue unscrambling task, and the CONG was instructed by teacher conventional method. The groups were pretested and posttested through the speaking section of Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants’ interview transcriptions were then coded for scoring and statistical analysis of fluency to show the effects of treatment for each group. The four groups received their required instructions for ten sessions. The findings revealed that task variation made significant differences in the learners’ oral fluency achievement. The analyses made through running ANOVA and Post Hoc yielded to the conclusion that EXG1, instructed through a combination of the three tasks, outperformed the other groups regarding fluency achievement. The findings of this study have pedagogical implications for teachers, EFL learners, and syllabus designers.

The present study aimed to examine the effects of an educational technology called smart learning pen (i.e., iPen) as an ICT tool on young Iranian male and female EFL learners' speaking accuracy and fluency. A group of 180 young (6-9 years old) male and female learners with no previous formal education in English were randomly assigned into three different conditions: those who used the iPen in class and at home (IPC), at home only (IPH), and those who did not use the iPen at all (NIP). As gender was an independent variable, each condition had male and female groups. To address the research questions, the participants' performance on the oral sub-test of the posttest was put into analysis. The two-way ANOVA run on the effect of the independent variables (iPen and gender) and their interaction on the participants' speaking accuracy, and fluency revealed that using iPen helped the IPC and IPH participants significantly outperform the NIP group in terms of both accuracy and fluency. However, such an analysis did not show any significant effect for gender, nor did it show any significant effect when the interaction of gender and other variables was taken into account. The study has practical implications for policymakers, language teachers as well as software, hardware, and mobile phone application developers.

This study examined the effect of rehearsal, strategic, and online planning on the intermediate undergraduate EFL learners’ writing complexity, accuracy, fluency (CAF), lexical variety, and the cognitive psychological performance of attentional allocation to linguistic aspects during planning. To this end, 80 intermediate university students were randomly divided into three experimental groups and one control group. The participants’ performance was compared based on measures of Wigglesworth and Storch’s (2009) fluency, Storch and Wigglesworth’s (2007) accuracy, Foster and Skehan’s (1999) complexity, McKee, Malvern, and Richards’ (2000) vocd-D model of lexical diversity. The study focused on rehearsal, strategic, and online planning in argumentative writing tasks. Retrospective interviews were conducted right after task performance to examine the participants' attentional allocation under three planning-time conditions. It was revealed that rehearsal task planning resulted in higher CAF and lexical variety in comparison to the other groups. Noticeable variation was also evidenced in the participants’ attentional allocation in terms of CAF across different time planning conditions. It was also shown that the learners paid more attention to the conceptualization of ideas during pre-task planning through sentences or clauses while performing a task. Little attention was paid to formulizing complex or accurate utterances. The findings have numerous pedagogical implications for EFL teachers, university instructors, and EFL students.

This study sought to investigate the relationship among English as a foreign language (EFL) learners’ ratings of willingness to communicate (WTC) in English and their task-based speech production and self-monitoring behavior. To accomplish this objective, methodological triangulation was adopted using a questionnaire, stimulated recall data, and quantitative measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) to answer two questions: (1) how learners’ ratings of their WTC related to the CAF of their oral output, and (2) how learners’ ratings of their WTC related to the frequency and type of their self-corrections in terms of A-, D-, and E-repairs. Fifty Iranian intermediate EFL learners participated in the study. WTC scale was used to measure the participants’ perception of their desire to initiate communication in English. In addition, to collect samples of their L2 speech, they were asked to perform a narrative task. Following their task performance, participants were asked to retrospectively comment on the type of error correction they engaged in while performing the task. The results showed the positive correlation coefficients among learners’ perceptions of their WTC and measures of fluency, A- and D-repairs to be statistically significant. The WTC also negatively correlated with accuracy and E-repairs. In the end, the theoretical as well as practical implications of the results for instructed L2 acquisition were discussed.

This quantitative study aimed to investigate the combined effects of two types of strategic planning, namely collaborative and teacher-led planning conditions and task complexity on Iranian intermediate language learners' oral production in terms of complexity, accuracy, and fluency. To achieve this purpose, 90 EFL learners were selected through convenience sampling from a language institute in Shiraz, Iran, and randomly assigned to two control and four experimental groups. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design in the form of pretest, treatment, and posttest. In the first step, all participants took part in a speaking pretest in which they were required to narrate a story based on a series of picture description tasks. While the experimental groups underwent 10 treatment sessions of picture description task performance along with two planning types i.e., teacher-led and collaborative planning conditions, the control groups were not allowed to plan the task performance. In the last session, the language learners took a posttest whose results were compared with those of the pretest. The findings revealed that the language learners in the collaborative planning groups outperformed the other groups in terms of both fluency and complexity. Further, teacher-led groups did better than the other groups in terms of accuracy. This study carries crucial implications for EFL teachers, material developers, syllabus designers, and speaking skill examiners.