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Article Dans Une Revue Les Après-midi de LAIRDIL Année : 1995

Aspects of Fluency and Accuracy

James Dean Brown
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Résumé

The introduction of this paper explores a number of different definitions of "fluency" and its apparent antithesis, "accuracy." The paper then goes on to suggest ways that the language teaching profession's view of fluency should be expanded to include a wider array of linguistic tools that students must be able to use, a variety of choices that students must be able to make and an assortment of strategies that they should eventually be able to use to compensate for the fact that they lack full knowledge and fluency in the language. In more detail, to improve fluency, students must have certain linguistic tools that go well beyond the knowledge of pronunciation, syntax and vocabulary that most teachers provide their students. Students must also be able to use (a) suprasegmental, (b) paralinguistic, (c) proxemic and (d) pragmatic tools to their advantage. In addition, to increase their fluency, they must learn to make linguistic choices that have to do with (a) settings, (b) social, sexual, and psychological roles, as well as (c) register and style. There are also six linguistic strategies that will help students increase their fluency, that is, the abilities: (a) to use speed to their advantage, (b) to use pauses and hesitations efficiently, (c) to give appropriate feedback, (d) to repair competently, (e) to clarify effectively, and (f) to negotiate for meaning when necessary. Finally, teachers can do at least five things in their classrooms to foster fluency: (a) encourage students to make errors, (b) create many opportunities for students to practise, (c) create activities that force students to focus on getting a message across, (d) assess student's fluency not their accuracy and (e) talk to the students about fluency. This paper concludes by noting that fluency is not an absolute issue where a student either has it or doesn't have it. Rather, fluency is a matter of degrees. Hence, some degree of fluency can probably be attained at all levels of ability. Given this state of affairs, students should gradually be acquainted with the linguistic tools, choices and strategies they will need to communicate fluently, regardless of the level of language proficiency they may have at the moment.

Domaines

Linguistique
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Dates et versions

hal-04056133 , version 1 (03-04-2023)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04056133 , version 1

Citer

James Dean Brown. Aspects of Fluency and Accuracy. Les Après-midi de LAIRDIL, 1995, 04, pp.9-35. ⟨hal-04056133⟩
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