Dissertation
The role of input variation in promoting oral fluency in Chinese as a foreign language
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Spring 2020
DOI: 10.17077/etd.005407
Abstract
This study explored how variation of word association within phrases helped adult learners of Chinese extract the underlying phrase pattern, which in turn assisted them in bundling words together and promoting their oral fluency at sentence level in Chinese as a foreign language. The development of learners’ Chinese oral fluency was proposed to be driven by chunking in statistical learning, which made use of people’s implicit computation capability to abstract open-slot frames that could be filled with different words and then automatize the procedure of producing those constructions through exposure to diversified meaningful input.
Three behavioral experiments were conducted on over 200 participants to address: (a) whether high-associated word within the “modifier + de + noun” phrase pattern triggered greater facilitative chunking for fluent sentence production than low-associated words did in Chinese as a foreign language, (b) what type of word variability within that phrase pattern and those surrounding the pattern positively impact the development of learners’ oral fluency in Chinese sentence production, and (c) when to introduce highly varied input to help learners improve their Chinese oral fluency at sentence level.
Results for the first experiment indicated that effective chunking could be activated by the high likelihood of word connection within a phrase pattern, which enabled learners to efficiently integrate words into phrases in online sentence production and accordingly increased their speaking speed, reduced their hesitation time when articulating a sentence, and accelerated their reaction of initiating a sentence.
Results for the second and the third experiments revealed that chunking was most facilitated by sentences with high within-pattern but low context variation, as well as the arrangement of starting with relatively low-variance samples and gradually increasing their variability in a four-day fluency training. High context variation also significantly contributed to learners’ utilization of chunking for oral fluency development if given enough time.
Finally, results for the three experiments altogether showed that oral fluency in a foreign language consists of two dimensions––utterance fluency of speaking speed and hesitation, and cognitive fluency of sentence initiation process and its stability. Utterance fluency features are more trainable and more sensitive to the fluctuation of language performance, whereas cognitive fluency captures a more comprehensive picture of learners’ oral fluency levels but is more difficult to be developed and maintained from either in-class instruction or short periods of fluency training.
Taken collectively, the findings of this study offer empirical support for the positive effect of analytic chunking on learners’ oral fluency in sentence production while providing pedagogical implications for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Specifically, instructors may introduce a certain amount of word collocation variability in an appropriate time and manner to help students improve their Chinese oral fluency.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The role of input variation in promoting oral fluency in Chinese as a foreign language
- Creators
- Mengtian Chen
- Contributors
- Chuanren Ke (Advisor)Bob McMurray (Committee Member)Christine Shea (Committee Member)Helen Shen (Committee Member)Walter Vispoel (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Second Language Acquisition
- Date degree season
- Spring 2020
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.005407
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- xv, 163 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2020 Mengtian Chen
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- illustrations
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 136-151).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
Speaking fluently in a foreign language is what most adult learners struggle with. My dissertation explores how word variation in phrases (e.g., give advice vs. offer advice) helps learners of Chinese extract phrase patterns, which assists them in bundling words and increasing their Chinese oral fluency at sentence level. This project highlights humans’ ability to implicitly abstract regularities of word association from exposure to diversified language input rather than being explicitly taught in class.
Over 200 students from different Chinese levels participated in my study. They heard a pre-recorded sentence syllable by syllable three times without any cues for word connection, after which they repeated the whole sentence in a natural way. Results showed that the high likelihood of word association enabled students to efficiently integrate words into phrases and thus increased their speaking speed, reduced their pauses, and accelerated their reaction of starting a sentence. This kind of chunking was most facilitated by sentences with high word variation within a phrase but low word variation surrounding that phrase. Additionally, starting with low-variance materials and gradually increasing their variability was optimal for oral fluency improvement.
My dissertation corroborates the common sense that chunking reduces processing load in sentence production and increases oral fluency accordingly. My fluency training rebuts against claims about the downsides of word variability for foreign language learning. As for in-class instruction, teachers may introduce a certain amount of word association variability in an appropriate time and manner to help students improve their Chinese oral fluency.
- Academic Unit
- Second Language Acquisition
- Record Identifier
- 9983968394102771
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