DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L315.29
Authors: Sakae Onoda
Abstract:
This paper presents the results of an investigation into the effects of issue logs on L2 oral fluency in Japanese university classrooms. In issue logs [1], students locate a TV news clip or newspaper article on their favorite topic, form pairs, and report the story and their opinions to their partners, repeating the process with three different partners. It has been argued that issue logs can enhance oral fluency in the language production of learners [1] because it includes such essential fluency-enhancing elements as formulaic language units [2], automatization [3], repetition, message focus, deep processing [1], and practice [4]. Participants were second-year English majors. Issue logs were implemented in Media English classes that met twice a week over an entire academic year. Oral fluency was measured using a story-telling task that assessed rate of speech after deletion of reformulations, repetitions, and self-corrections [5]. The test was administered at the beginning and end of the year, as was a standard university speaking test. Results showed that the oral fluency thus measured improved significantly, thus lending support to the use of the issue logs.
Keywords: issue logs, oral fluency, formulaic sequences, automatization, repetition, rehearsal, deep processing
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