Exploring the association between oral fluency and communicative adequacy in task-based peer interactions among CSL learners

Understanding the relationship between oral fluency and communicative adequacy (CA) in second language acquisition is critical for effective pedagogical practices. This study aims to examine how oral fluency measures correlate with CA in task-based peer interactions among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL), and to explore how different task types mediate this relationship. Data were collected from CSL learners performing storytelling and opinion-sharing tasks. Quantitative analyses were conducted to assess fluency measures—including speech rate, pause duration, and articulation speed—alongside ratings of CA. The results demonstrate a significant association between oral fluency and CA, with average silent pause duration identified as the strongest predictor, followed by speech rate. Furthermore, fluency-CA dynamics varied across task types, suggesting that task-specific contextual features shape how fluency influences communicative success. These findings underscore the importance for educators to not only enhance linguistic fluency but also to cultivate learners’ adaptive use of language through diversified task design.