The Relationship between Japanese EFL Learners’ Perceived Fluency and Temporal Speech Measures in a Read Aloud Task

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between holistic rater judgments of second language (L2) speech fluency (i.e., perceived fluency) and temporal measures of fluency (i.e., utterance fluency) in a read-aloud task. 63 L2 English Japanese secondary school students were audio-recorded while carrying out a 69-word read-aloud task. 11 L2 English-speaking instructors rated the speech for perceived fluency, and the speech samples were analyzed for utterance fluency. The linear regression model revealed that articulation rate and clause-internal pauses significantly predicted perceived fluency. Findings are discussed in relation to the use of read-aloud tasks for the teaching and assessment of L2 speech fluency.