This action research centered on features of oral fluency among Chilean higher education students, focusing on the 'describing picture strategy' innovation. Set in the context of the Advanced English II course, the study determines the effects of the strategy in boosting oral fluency. The intervention of this investigation was enhanced by…

The proliferation of assisted technology has been widely used in language learning, but this should be able to accommodate inclusive language learning which has become an important issue in today's English language teaching and the higher education landscape in Indonesia. This study examined the perception of EFL slow learners in terms of the…

The study reported in this article was aimed at investigating whether making the findings of second language fluency research accessible to language teachers has an impact on their self-reported understanding of the concept of oral fluency, confidence in promoting it, and classroom practice in short and medium term. The data come from 106 initial…

One of the tasks for language teachers is to create an interactive environment to help learners communicate globally in the 21st century. Employing a case-study design, this research is aimed to explore how far using the target language (L2), as the main language of classroom interaction, can affect students' oral fluency through the technique of…

The purpose of this study was to explore if by integrating Brain-based learning principles with a constructivist approach to English oral communication at a higher education institution, ESL participants would develop their English oral communication fluency. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.) [The dissertation citations contained here are…

Given the growing importance of English as a lingua franca, this study examines which context (classroom instruction in the students' home country vs. studying abroad in an English-speaking country) better facilitates the acquisition of English by learners of different ages: children, adolescents and adults. Participants (N = 197) completed…

Classroom instruction provides a limited amount of quality speaking practice for language learners. Asynchronous multimedia-based oral communication is one way to provide learners with quality speaking practice outside of class. Asynchronous multimedia-based oral communication helps learners develop presentational speaking skills and raise their…

Undoubtedly, different learning contexts offer different opportunities for foreign language practice. This article focuses on context effects, and reports on the findings of the "Study Abroad and Language Acquisition" (SALA) project, which has examined in depth the impact of two learning contexts, SA within the European Community Action…

Describes how foreign language instructors can test oral communication skills by simulating real-life situations and how this testing format was adapted so it could be used in a multisection French course. (one reference) (GLR)

Explored the effects of inherent task structure and processing load on narrative retelling task performance, analyzing task performance in terms of competition among fluency, complexity, and accuracy. Research with young adults found that degree of inherent task structure more strongly affected fluency of performance. Processing load influenced…

In English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) classes at the college level, students are often enrolled who have a high degree of oral fluency, but little proficiency in reading or writing. Developmental ESL students need a solid start toward "inventing" themselves as readers and writers. One method of teaching ESL students to write is to build…

Investigated the effects of both pre-task and on-line planning on second language (L2) oral production. Results show that pre-task planning enhances grammatical complexity while on-line planning positively influences accuracy and grammatical complexity. Pre-task planners also produced more fluent and lexically varied language than the on-line…

Studied differences in language gain in French among two groups of students, those who studied abroad and those who remained at home to study in the college classroom. Six nonteacher native speakers compared the oral and written fluency of both groups of students. Results show the context of language learning is a factor in what oral and written…

Study abroad is not a frill of the foreign language major's curriculum, but rather a component that is crucial to the linguistic preparation of a successful language teacher. During the study abroad experience, the student can obtain the ability to use the language freely and spontaneously, thus helping create an atmosphere of excitement and…

Explores the effect of individual speaking style on the self-correction behavior of second-language speakers. The project involved 30 Hungarian learners of English studying at various levels of proficiency and made use of self-report data. (Author/VWL)