Journal Article

The Relationship Between Oral Fluency and Conversational Self-Repair Among L2 Chinese Learners

Cao, Fei

2024

Overview

This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese. In this study, 76 junior Dutch students were split into two different groups based on level and were tested at two time periods (T1 and T2) for L2 Chinese fluency, which included the control variables of repetition repair, expansion, grammar, and phonological repair. The latent growth model was utilized to analyze the data. The predictive effects of the initial level and development rate of L2 oral fluency on self-repair were investigated after controlling for relevant variables. We also used diversity analysis to explore oral fluency. The univariate latent growth model was employed to examine the direction of influence among L2 Chinese oral fluency and the four types of self-repair variables, and the autoregression control model was utilized to analyze the beginner level. Gray relational analysis was used to explore the relationship among the above variables for the more advanced level group. Based on our results, the regression model performed best for predicting the relationship between the variables in the first oral fluency test as well the second. The results showed that the grammar repair skills seen in the first assessment can positively predict oral fluency (B = 0.373, p = .001 < .05) in the second; the first expansion repair (B = −0.250, p = .025 < .05) can negatively predict oral fluency in the second test. Specifically, by analyzing the relationship between self-repair types and second-language oral fluency, our study can enrich the theories related to conversational repair. At the same time, our study is helpful in improving learners’ oral communicative competence, teachers’ adjustment of teaching strategies, and learners’ efficient acquisition of Chinese. Plain Language Summary This study examines the developmental relationship between L2 Chinese oral fluency and self-repair in Dutch students learning Chinese By analyzing the relationship between self-repair types and second-language oral fluency, our study can enrich the theories related to conversational repair. At the same time, our study is helpful in improving learners’ oral communicative competence, teachers’ adjustment of teaching strategies, and learners’ efficient acquisition of Chinese.

• Publisher: SAGE Publications,SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC,SAGE Publishing
• Subject: Adjustment / Chinese languages / Communicative competence / Communicative Competence (Languages) / Competence / Conversation / Dutch language / Educational Strategies / Fluency / Grammar / Growth models / Language / Language acquisition / Learning / Repair / Repetition / Second language learning / Second language teachers / Students / Teachers / Teaching / Teaching methods / Tests / Time periods / Variables