The role of foreign language anxiety on L2 utterance fluency during a final exam. (July 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pérez Castillejo, Susana
• Is Part Of: Language testing. Volume 36:Number 3(2019)
• Page Start: 327
• Page End: 345
• Publication Date: 2019-07
• Subjects: Affective factors -- foreign language anxiety -- L2 cognitive fluency -- L2 utterance fluency -- oral exam data; Language and languages -- Ability testing -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Examinations -- Periodicals; 407.6
• DOI: 10.1177/0265532218777783
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0265-5322

Abstract

This study examines how foreign language anxiety (FLA) and proficiency relate to second language (L2) utterance fluency during a final oral exam. Thirty-eight learners of Spanish (L1 English) completed unplanned narratives that were coded for ratio and length of pauses between and within Analysis of Speech Units, mean length of run, phonation-time ratio, and articulation rate. Learners' oral proficiency was measured with an aural/oral sentence imitation task. Multiple regression analyses showed that anxiety is a strong predictor for certain temporal features associated with subjective ratings of fluency. Overall oral proficiency, however, was not a significant predictor in any case. The findings confirm the interference of FLA with cognitive processing and contribute to our understanding of the challenges faced by anxious learners during classroom-based language assessment.