Efficacy of Unguided Conversation on Fluency and Speaking Confidence: A Case Study in South Korea

To date, there is limited research into the measurable benefits of unguided and unstructured conversation practice (typically a popular, in-demand service) for adult English language learners. This project looks to determine the differences in measured oral fluency as well as self-reported speaking confidence of South Korean university students before and after several months of conversational English practice with native English instructors. Participants were given weekly one-on-one “free talk” sessions with no grammatical instruction and very limited corrective feedback for a total of one hour. Sessions were recorded at early and late program intervals in order to calculate the average length of runs and speech rate. Moreover, students completed pre- and post-program surveys to estimate their overall confidence levels in L2 speaking. This project found limited change in fluency without direct corrective feedback. Furthermore, our measurements of students’ self-reported speaking confidence revealed inconsistent trends from the first to last sessions. This research seems to indicate that loosely structured, “coffee shop” style lessons should adopt a more structured curriculum in order to see more pronounced and measurable growth over time.