Exploring EFL Fluency in Asia

by Muller, Theron; Adamson, John; Brown, Philip Shigeo; Herder, Steven

• ISBN13: 9781137449399
• ISBN10: 113744939X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-10-14
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

While individual teachers interpret fluency differently, most working in EFL agree that it has a considerable influence on the success or failure of students' language learning. In EFL contexts, the absence of fluency-based practice opportunities can lead to low self-confidence, low language learning motivation, and limitations in learners' productive skills. This volume explores fluency in all fours skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) and through a number of different perspectives to build upon existing research and to expand the fluency discussion to include consideration of classroom strategies for fluency development in EFL contexts. The definition of fluency as a trait of speaking is expanded to encompass all four language skills in an effort to illustrate its importance to all aspects of language learning. This volume includes a mixture of literature review chapters outlining the research paradigm for ongoing fluency research and empirical investigations into fluency development and measurement in the EFL classroom, making it relevant to both researchers and practitioners of EFL.

Author Biography

Theron Muller is Associate Professor at University of Toyama, Japan. He is the co-editor of Innovating EFL Teaching in Asia and researches writing for academic publication, English for Specific Purposes, and TEFL/TESL classroom-based research.

John Adamson is a Professor at the University of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, teaching EAP. He is senior associate editor for Asian EFL Journal and The Linguistics Journal.

Philip Shigeo Brown is Lecturer at Konan Women's University, Japan, and a University of Birmingham, UK, distance MA TEFL/SL tutor. He is a founding member of MASH Collaboration and co-editor of Innovating EFL Teaching in Asia.

Steven Herder is Assistant Professor at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, Japan. His belief that fluency-first in EFL increases self-confidence and motivation and his passion for teachers' professional development led him to co-found itdi.pro.

Table of Contents

An Introduction to Exploring EFL Fluency in Asia; Theron Muller and Philip Shigeo Brown
PART I: FLUENCY IN CURRICULUM
1. Developing Fluency; I. S. P. Nation
2. Employing a Fluency-Based Approach to Teach the TOEFL iBT: An Action Research Project; Steven Herder and Gregory Sholdt
3. Scaffolding Participating, Agencing Friending and Fluencing; Tim Murphey
4. Fluency through Attitude Change; Andrew Finch
5. A Lexicogrammatical Approach to Fluency; Jason Peppard
PART II: SPEAKING FLUENCY
6. Addressing Spoken Fluency in the Classroom; Steven Kirk
7. An Exploration of Effective Teaching Approaches for Enhancing the Oral Fluency of EFL Students; Sakae Onoda
8. The Influence of Intentional Reasoning on EFL Fluency Using Tasks; Tomohito Ishikawa
PART III: WRITING FLUENCY
9. Implementing and Evaluating Free Writing in a Japanese EFL Classroom; Theron Muller
10. Assessing Fluency: A Framework for Spoken and Written Output; Sue Fraser
11. Recent Developments in Writing Fluency Measurement; Muhammad M. M. Abdel Latif
PART IV: READING FLUENCY
12. Building Fluency with Extensive Reading; Rob Waring
13. Extensive Reading and Students' Academic Achievement: A case study; Mu He
14. Improving Reading Fluency: An Investigation into Timed Reading; Andrew Atkins
15. Improving Fluency in EFL Reading Comprehension in Adolescents with Learning Difficulties; Carol Goldfus
PART V: LISTENING FLUENCY
16. Developing Listening Fluency in Asian EFL Settings; Michael Rost
17. How Can We Enhance EFL Learners' Listening Fluency? Teaching Connected Speech to Japanese University Students Using Songs; Junko Matsuzaki Carreira
18. Does Autonomous Listening Increase Fluency?; Ya-Chin Tsai