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Investigating Fluency and Interactional Competence Development in a Japanese University EFL Discussion Course
Garside, Paul
Garside, Paul
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2025-08
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Teaching & Learning
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https://doi.org/10.34944/wnm8-2062
Abstract
Many learners express the desire to speak a language fluently, although in practice this goal entails not only speaking relatively quickly and smoothly, but also interacting in ways that are appropriate to the communicative context. However, it remains an open question whether and how quickly learners can acquire such skills in an EFL environment, in which opportunities to use the target language are often limited outside the classroom. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the degree to which Japanese university students’ speaking fluency and interactional competence (i.e., the ability to interact) developed over the course of one academic semester during a communicative, twice-weekly speaking and discussion course. Another purpose was to investigate any changes in speaking self-efficacy that occurred during the course, and to relate this variable to the fluency and interactional competence data. Two additional individual difference variables—speaking anxiety and extraversion—were also investigated. The participants were 20 low-intermediate learners, selected from two intact classes, with data gathered at three time points throughout the academic semester.A mixed methods research design was used to investigate these issues. Monologue activities were used to measure utterance fluency, which represents the quantifiable features of fluency, such as speed and pausing. To triangulate fluency gains and to investigate performance in the interactive context, fluency measures were also taken from group discussions. These discussions were also used for native-speaker ratings of perceived fluency. A combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis was used to investigate interactional competence development, also based on performance in the group discussions. Finally, questionnaire data were used to investigate the individual difference variables of speaking self-efficacy, speaking anxiety, and extraversion.
Results indicated that speaking fluency significantly improved over the course of the semester. Early gains in utterance fluency were mainly due to a reduction in pausing time. In the second half of the semester, however, an accumulation of marginal gains across various measures indicated that discrete aspects of speech production were integrating and thus working more efficiently. Furthermore, these utterance fluency gains were matched by gains made in the interactive context, especially in the first half of the course. Specifically, there was an increase in the number of syllables produced during the group discussions, as well as a reduction in the number and length of inter-turn pauses. These gains were also detected by the raters, who judged the participants significantly higher in fluency at the end of the course. Taken together, these findings present a powerful case for the fluency-enhancing benefits of communicative interaction in an EFL environment.
Results also indicated that interactional competence developed during the semester. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant increase in the number of turn and topic management moves over time, indicating an increase in collaborative behavior as well as a greater willingness to take the initiative in managing the interaction. In contrast, there was a significant decrease in the number of topic extension (i.e., content generating) statements, with the participants producing longer and more complex contributions over time as they adapted to the demands of the discussion tasks. These developments appeared to create a positive feedback loop, as longer topic extensions and more efficient turn-taking facilitated more speaking practice, thus creating the conditions necessary for fluency development.
The development of interactional competence was further highlighted by qualitative analysis, which confirmed the shift from short, often sub-clausal, topic extensions to longer, multi-clausal extensions. It also revealed a gradual progression towards the smoother use of turn and topic management features, and a diversification of techniques for marking agreement and disagreement. In addition, techniques for negotiating meaning were applied to a broader range of situations, and several instances of collaborative turn completions emerged at the final data collection point. Finally, there was a reduced reliance on L1 when negotiating meaning and transitioning between turns and topics. Many of these skills and techniques were presented and practiced during the course; moreover, their use was not related to the participants’ levels of fluency, suggesting that these aspects of interactional competence can be directly taught.
The third main finding was that, although anxiety remained stable, speaking self-efficacy increased significantly in the first half of the course, indicating that affective benefits resulted as students grew accustomed to the communicative environment. This increased measure correlated with several of the performance variables—specifically utterance fluency, number of syllables produced in the discussions, and length of topic extension—at the mid point of the course. However, these positive correlations disappeared at the end of the course, indicating that students lower in positive affect had caught up with their peers in these aspects. Therefore, the results of this study indicated not only that fluency and interactional competence can develop during a single semester of communicative EFL instruction, but that the benefits of this pedagogical approach can extend to learners with various types of affective profiles. In terms of personality, however, extraverted students consistently performed more fluently, and participated more fully, than their introverted peers. Furthermore, the fact that the extraversion correlations were the most stable of all the individual difference variables over time supports the idea that, as a dispositional personality trait, its effects are more predictable than contextualized characteristics such as self-efficacy and anxiety.
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