Second-Language English Fluency Change in Native-Speaker Context

John Zehnder, Minnesota State University, MankatoFollow

1st Student's Major

Geography

1st Student's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Students' Professional Biography

John Zehnder, a native of Mankato, Minnesota is a senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato. John is majoring in Geography, with minors in Linguistics and Teaching ESL. John’s future aspiration in academia is to pursue a PhD in Linguistics with emphasis on phonology and language change.

Mentor's Name

Karen Lybeck

Mentor's Email Address

karen.lybeck@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

English

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Abstract

This study examines the influence of social context on oral proficiency change among English language learners on the campus of an American university. Speech samples were taken from 2 rounds of interviews with 9 East Asian women. These were analyzed using the phonetic analysis program Praat in order to determine each speaker’s rate of stressed syllables at the beginning and end of the study. The change in these rates was used as a proxy for fluency change. This was then compared with each speaker’s social context. The results suggested that English language learners improve their fluency when they have at least one English-speaking friend and do not have a partner who shares their own native language.

Recommended Citation

Zehnder, John (2012) "Second-Language English Fluency Change in Native-Speaker Context," Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 12, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1022
Available at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol12/iss1/14