Fluency and anxiety in self-access speaking tasks: the influence of environment

Abstract

This study compares characteristics of fluency in student audio journals recorded in a laboratory setting with those recorded using mobile audio devices. Forty graduate students enrolled in four oral communication courses at an American university recorded weekly audio journals for a 10-week term. Students chose the environment in which they recorded these journals, provided that they recorded at least once in the audio laboratory and at least once using the mobile audio devices. The frequency of preferred recording environment was observed. Two independent raters assigned rank scores to the students' volume, pausing, utterance length, and rate in relation to the observable influence of anxiety upon fluency in order to determine if there is a significant difference between fluency in these two environments. Implications for language learning are discussed.

Keywords:

• mobility
• mobile-learning
• self-access
• fluency
• anxiety
• pronunciation
• environment

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