The presentation addresses two key areas for expanding the scope of L2 fluency research: fluency in interaction and multimodal aspects of fluency. With examples from a data set of video-recorded peer interactions, the benefits and challenges in the use of interactional data for a multimodal L2 fluency analysis are discussed.
Fluency can be regarded as a key element of second language (L2) learners' proficiency along with e.g., accuracy & complexity (Housen et al. 2012). While fluency has been extensively studied, the majority of the studies conducted so far have focused on an individual speaker's fluency based on audio-recorded samples of monologic speech. In this presentation, two key areas for expanding the scope of L2 fluency research are discussed: fluency in interactional contexts and multimodal aspects of fluency (see also e.g., Wright & Tavakoli 2016). The benefits and challenges in the use of interactional data for a multimodal L2 fluency analysis are illustrated with examples from a data set of video-recorded peer interactions from Finnish learners of English. The examples illustrate how an analysis of the learners' non-verbal conduct can contribute to a more nuanced analysis of fluency in an interactional context. Furthermore, based on the examples, potential indicators of interactional fluency are proposed. The analysis of the examples suggests that in addition to individual (within-turn) measures of fluency, also collaborative (between-turn) measures of fluency are needed for a comprehensive analysis of fluency in interactional contexts. The presentation concludes with a discussion of implications for future L2 fluency research.
References
Housen, A., Kuiken, F., & Vedder, I. (2012). Dimensions of L2 performance and proficiency: Complexity, accuracy and fluency in SLA. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Wright, C., & Tavakoli, P. (2016). New directions and developments in defining, analyzing and measuring L2 speech fluency. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 54, 73–77.
