Native speakers' perceptions of fluency acquired by study abroad students and their implications for the classroom at home

Abstract

This chapter explores the relationship between empirically identified features of nonnative oral fluency and the subjective perceptions of oral fluency by native speakers (NSs) of Spanish. Our aims were to understand what fluency, in general, means to a group of NSs, to examine listener perceptions of nonnative fluency, to determine which characteristics of nonnative speech are associated with fluency and dysfluency, and to investigate the association between NSs’ subjective reactions and objective measures of fluency. In addition, we were interested in the extent to which dysfluency disturbed listeners. Nine NS judges listened to and evaluated speech samples of 46 students who studied Spanish abroad (SA) or at home (AH). Judges assessed each speaker’s fluency level on a 7-point scale.Findings revealed that all NSs defined a fluent speaker as one who is able to transmit a clear, comprehensible message that is easily understood by the interlocutor.However, the NSs also identified a wide range of elements that they considered as part of fluency.The judges identified the SA students as being more fluent at the end of the semester than the AH students.Additionally, their subjective ratings correlated highly and significantly with the empirical measures of oral fluency. Finally, we explore possible pedagogical implications of these findings for helping second language (L2) speakers improve their fluency.