Dimensions of L2 Performance and Proficiency : Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in SLA

✍ Scribed by Alex Housen; Folkert Kuiken; Ineke Vedder

• Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 317
• Series: Language learning and language teaching
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This chapter presents the results of a study on interlanguage variation. The production of four L2 learners of Italian, tested four times at yearly intervals while engaged in four oral tasks, is compared to that of two native speakers, and analysed with quantitative CAF measures. Thus, time, task type, nativeness, as well as group vs. individual scores are the independent variables and complexity, accuracy, and fluency are the dependent ones. Results show how both L2 learners and native speakers display situational variation, but with clear differences amongst the two groups. Longitudinally, a Read more...

Content: 1. Table of contents, pI-VI; 2. Acknowledgements, pVII-VIII; 3. Notes on contributors, pIX-XII; 4. Complexity, accuracy and fluency: Definitions, measurement and research (by Housen, Alex), p1-20; 5. Defining and operationalising L2 complexity (by Bulte, Bram), p21-46; 6. Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency from the perspective of psycholinguistic Second Language Acquisition research (by Towell, Richard J.), p47-70; 7. Complexity, accuracy and fluency*: The role played by formulaic sequences in early interlanguage development (by Myles, Florence), p71-94; 8. The growth of complexity and accuracy in L2 French: Past observations and recent applications of developmental stages (by Agren, Malin), p95-120; 9. The effect of task complexity on functional adequacy, fluency and lexical diversity in speaking performances of native and non-native speakers (by Jong, Nivja de), p121-142; 10. Syntactic complexity, lexical variation and accuracy as a function of task complexity and proficiency level in L2 writing and speaking (by Kuiken, Folkert), p143-170; 11. The effects of cognitive task complexity on L2 oral production (by Levkina, Mayya), p171-198; 12. Complexity, accuracy, fluency and lexis in task-based performance: A synthesis of the Ealing research (by Skehan, Peter), p199-220; 13. Measuring and perceiving changes in oral complexity, accuracy and fluency: Examining instructed learners' short-term gains (by Tonkyn, Alan Paul), p221-244; 14. The development of complexity, accuracy and fluency in the written production of L2 French (by Gunnarsson, Cecilia), p247-276; 15. A longitudinal study of complexity, accuracy and fluency variation in second language development (by Ferraris, Stefania), p277-298; 16. Epilogue (by Housen, Alex), p299-302; 17. Index, p303-306
Abstract:

Research into complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) as basic dimensions of second language performance, proficiency and development has received increased attention in SLA. This title showcases research on CAF by bringing together eleven contributions from renowned international researchers in the field. Read more...