The Development of Fluency in Advanced Learners of French  

Oleh:

Towell, Richard ; Bazergui, Nives ; Hawkins, R.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Applied Linguistics (Full Text) vol. 17 no. 1 (Mar. 1996), page 84-119.
Fulltext: Vol 17, 1, p 84-119.pdf (1.8MB)

Ketersediaan

Perpustakaan PKBB Nomor Panggil: 405/APL/17 Non-tandon: tidak ada Tandon: 1

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Isi artikel

In this article, it will be argued that the proceduralization of linguistic knowledge is the most important factor in the development of fluency in advanced second language learners. Levelt's (1989) model of language production is used to provide the descriptive base for the sub-processes of language production. This posits the existence of a conceptualizer, a formulator, and an articulator, each of which contains procedural knowledge. Levelt's model does not, however, deal with how that knowledge is developed. It is proposed that Anderson's (1983) model of adaptive control of thought may be used to account for developmental aspects. This posits that the learning process involves the conversion of declarative knowledge into procedural knowledge via cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages of compilation and tuning. Neither Levelt nor Anderson, however, have stated how the contribution of the sub-processes or how the developmental stages may be measured in language use. It is argued that the temporal variables used by Grosjean and Deschamps (1972, 1973, 1975) provide a way of establishing comparisons which measure (a) differences in the global level of fluency and (b) the contribution of the sub-processes in the model. Evidence from 12 advanced learners of French performing the same task before and after a period of residence abroad and in French and English is used to show how this may be done. Initial results from experiments indicate that on a specific task learners became more fluent (as measured by speaking rate) as a result of the period of residence abroad and that an increase in mean length of run was the most important of the temporal variables contributing to this development. It is argued that the increase in mean length of run is mainly attributable to the proceduralization of different kinds of knowledge, including procedural knowledge of syntax and of lexical phrases (Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992). The way in which this may have taken place is illustrated by means of extracts from the texts produced by the subjects. We conclude that the quantitative and qualitative evidence supports the contention that increases in fluency are attributable mainly to increases in the degree of proceduralization of knowledge.

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