Learners rated phrase instruction and shadowing as the most useful fluency-workshop activities, and marking pauses as problematic for short-turn dialogue¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q1–q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Phrase instruction and shadowing received the highest perceived-usefulness ratings, with no significant difference between them. → Thomson 2017 q2 i? Focus-group participants reported difficulty hearing pauses in the marking-pauses activity, suggesting it suits monologue rather than conversational dialogue. → Thomson 2017 (2)

Evidence¶

Thomson 2017¶

Haidee Thomson. (2017). Building Speaking Fluency with Multiword Expressions. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, 34(3). https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v34i3.1272

q2 · i? · causal · r2

Activity feedback surveys on 5-point Likert scales completed by experimental participants after each activity, analyzed in SPSS. "Phrase instruction (M = 4.21, SD = 0.71)" and shadowing ranked highest.

"participants considered phrase instruction (M = 4.21, SD = 0.71) and shadowing (M = 3.84, SD = 0.92) to be the most useful activities; there was no significant difference between their rating, t(33) = -1.66, p = .107"

Thomson 2017 (2)¶

Haidee Thomson. (2017). Building Speaking Fluency with Multiword Expressions. TESL Canada Journal/Revue TESL du Canada, 34(3). https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v34i3.1272

q1 · i? · causal · r2

A 30-minute focus group with volunteer experimental participants, thematically coded in ELAN. All three participants "stated that “the sound is too fast,”" regarding the marking-pauses activity with short-turn dialogues.

"All three participants in the focus group discus- sion stated that “the sound is too fast,” and one participant’s comment sheds further light on this complaint: “to be honest I cannot hear the pauses.”"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Rhythm-shadowing training produced measurable improvements in mean length of run and pause ratio as fluency indicators — related
• Turn-taking with an AI partner shows slower responses, reduced learner floor share, and greater within-turn fluency — related
• A 6-week fluency workshop increases EFL learners' cued recall of target multiword expressions significantly more than a general English class
• The fluency workshop did not increase use of target multiword expressions in speech significantly more than a general English class