Development of Speech Fluency Over a Short Period of Time: Effects of Pedagogic Intervention

This study investigates the effects of a short‐term pedagogic intervention on development of second language (L2) fluency among learners studying English for academic purposes at a UK university. It also examines the interaction between development of fluency and complexity and accuracy. Through a pretest and posttest design, data were collected over a period of 4 weeks from learners performing monologic tasks. While the control group ( CG ) focused on developing general speaking and listening skills, the experimental group ( EG ) received awareness‐raising activities and fluency strategy training in addition to general speaking and listening practice. The data, coded in terms of a range of measures of fluency, accuracy, and complexity, were subjected to repeated‐measures multivariate analysis of variance ( MANOVA ), t ‐tests, and correlations. The results indicate that after the intervention, although some fluency gains were achieved by the CG , the EG produced statistically more fluent language, demonstrating a faster speech and articulation rate, longer runs, and higher phonation time ratios. The significant correlations obtained between measures of accuracy and learners’ pauses in the CG suggest that pausing opportunities may have been linked to accuracy. The findings have significant implications for L2 pedagogy, highlighting the effective impact of instruction on development of fluency.