Communication Strategies and Foreign Language Speech Production

Communication Strategies and Foreign Language Speech Production

Gicele Vergine Vieira Prebianca^I; Mailce Borges Mota Fortkamp^II

^IUniversidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC

^IIUniversidade Federal de Santa Catarina - UFSC

RESUMO

Este estudo investiga a relação entre o uso de estratégias de comunicação e o desempenho oral em uma língua estrangeira (L2). Trinta participantes foram alocados em grupos de nível pré-intermediário, intermediário e avançado. A fluência oral dos participantes foi determinada por meio da velocidade de fala (Lennon, 1990). Três narrativas foram usadas para eliciar a produção oral em L2, em três sessões diferentes. A análise revelou que a relação entre estratégias de comunicação e fluência oral em L2, medida pela velocidade da fala, não é estatisticamente significante em nenhum dos níveis de proficiência. Finalmente, a análise revelou que a variável velocidade da fala parece não ser suficiente para examinar a relação entre o uso de estratégias de comunicação e o desenvolvimento da produção oral em L2. Para explicar os poucos exemplos de correlações estatisticamente significantes entre a velocidade da fala e tipos de estratégias de comunicação, é sugerido que, devido aos inúmeros fatores que afetam a fluência em L2, outros aspectos de produção da fala sejam levados em consideração. Além disso, a natureza das tarefas propostas e a demanda cognitiva que essas tarefas exerceram podem ter contribuído para a aparentemente limitada melhora da produção oral dos participantes ao longo das sessões.

Palavras-chave: estratégias de comunicação, fluência oral, produção oral em L2.

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the relationship between communication strategies use and foreign language (L2) oral production. Thirty participants were assigned to a pre-intermediate, an intermediate or an advanced group. Their oral fluency was assessed by means of speech rate (Lennon, 1990). L2 speech production was elicited by means of three narrative tasks in three different sessions. Data analysis revealed that the relationship between communication strategies use and L2 oral fluency, as measured by speech rate, is not statistically significant in any of the three proficiency levels. The analysis also revealed that speech rate, alone, is not enough to examine the relationship between communication strategies use and L2 speech production. To explain the few instances of significant statistical correlations between speech rate and types of communication strategies, it is suggested that due to the multitude of factors affecting L2 oral fluency, other aspects of speech production need to be taken into consideration. In addition, the nature of tasks and their cognitive demands might have contributed to learners' apparently limited oral improvement across sessions.

Keywords: communication strategies, oral fluency, L2 oral production.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  22 Apr 2013
• Date of issue
  2007