Chapter 8. Oral fluency measures in study abroad research

Abstract

Measuring L2 speaking fluency is methodologically challenging. The current chapter critically evaluates measures of L2 speaking fluency and their limitations in study abroad (SA) research and offers new methodological directions based on current findings from L2 fluency research. The analysis of current methods in SA suggests researchers should move beyond the analysis of utterance and perceived fluency to include cognitive fluency in the assessment of oral development to gain a better understanding and a more comprehensive picture of SA effects on language development. In addition, we propose several methodological strategies that aim at improving the sensitivity and reliability of fluency measures in capturing the impact of SA on fluency development. Specifically, we highlight the need for expanding the range of elicitation methods to include dialogic speech, we recommend the use of L2-specific measures to control for learner variability in L1 speaking fluency, and we suggest the impact of socio-psychological and cognitive individual differences on L2 fluency development in study abroad be thoroughly investigated.