A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Fluency across modes: an exploratory study of L1 and L2 spoken and written fluency




AuthorsMutta, Maarit; Peltonen, Pauliina; Laine, Päivi; Lintunen, Pekka

PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH

Publication year2025

JournalInternational Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

Journal name in sourceInternational Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

First page 1

Last page30

ISSN0019-042X

eISSN1613-4141

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0187

Web address https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2024-0187


Abstract

The article presents an exploratory cross-modal analysis of fluency profiles in spoken and written first (L1, Finnish) and second (L2, English) language production of the same language users. Our data come from two research projects, from which we identified 11 university students participating in both. The spoken tasks consisted of monologue picture description (analysed with Praat), and the written tasks were short argumentative essays (collected and analysed with keystroke logging software GGXLog). Based on commonly used measures to capture different aspects of spoken and written fluency, we used a set of 14 measures (seven for speech fluency, seven for writing fluency) to examine fluency across modes comprehensively. Four profiles were identified from the data: (1) fast and productive, (2) fast, (3) slow and productive, and (4) slow and reflective. Six speakers had the same profile in the L1 and L2, and seven writers had the same profile in the L1 and L2. Only one participant had the same profile in the L1 and L2 speaking and writing. The results suggest that the cross-modal differences are greater than the differences between languages. The modalities are inherently different, which is also reflected in individual variation between the modalities.


Funding information in the publication
Funding source: Research Council of Finland

Award Identifier / Grant number: 331903

Funding source: Koneen Säätiö

Award Identifier / Grant number: 202102802


Last updated on 2025-19-02 at 12:25