Improving the Fluency of the Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Performance through Task Variation

Researchers have extensively studied factors that impact the development of fluency in L۲ oral production while there is scant evidence regarding task variation-related effects. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the effects of task variation involving group dialogue, dialogue unscrambling, and dialogue completion on Iranian EFL learners’ oral speech fluency. To this end, ۸۰ EFL learners were assigned to three experimental groups (EXG۱, EXG۲, and EXG۳) and one control group shown as CONG. The EXG۱ was treated by three tasks, i. e., dialogue completion, dialogue unscrambling, and group dialogue, the EXG۲ through two tasks involving dialogue completion and dialogue unscrambling, the EXG۳ by dialogue unscrambling task, and the CONG was instructed by teacher conventional method. The groups were pretested and posttested through the speaking section of Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants’ interview transcriptions were then coded for scoring and statistical analysis of fluency to show the effects of treatment for each group. The four groups received their required instructions for ten sessions. The findings revealed that task variation made significant differences in the learners’ oral fluency achievement. The analyses made through running ANOVA and Post Hoc yielded to the conclusion that EXG۱, instructed through a combination of the three tasks, outperformed the other groups regarding fluency achievement. The findings of this study have pedagogical implications for teachers, EFL learners, and syllabus designers.  

Keywords:

EFL learners , fluency , L۲ oral performance , task variation , EFL learners , L۲ oral performance , fluency , task variation