Abstract
This chapter investigates the mid-term effects of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) on intermediate Spanish-Catalan learners’ oral fluency and accuracy in English as a foreign language (EFL). Two groups of EFL learners (CLIL, N = 21, and FI, N = 22) were recorded performing two oral narrative tasks at two points in time separated by a 2-year interval. The fluency measurements used in the present study combined several temporal aspects of speech production including syllables per minute, pruned syllables per minute—excluding disfluencies, repetitions and false starts—, pauses per minute and mean pause duration. Both groups were found to make progress after 2 years of instruction, regardless of teaching methodology. However, CLIL learners were found to progress faster than their formal instruction (FI) peers, who made only modest progress after 2 years of FI. Speech errors were analyzed by a native English speaker who phonetically transcribed vowel identity. Results showed that CLIL instruction did not have an ameliorating effect on students’ pronunciation of vowel segments. Additional analyses revealed that spelling and vowel identity influenced the amount of vowel pronunciation errors produced by both groups of learners.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
VOT (voice onset time) is defined as “the duration of the time interval by which the onset of periodic pulsing either precedes or follows release” (Lisker and Abramson 1964: 387). VOT has been used in many cross-linguistic studies that investigate the acquisition of L2 stops (see Amengual (2012) or Rallo Fabra (1998) for a review).
- 2.
Participants were also recorded at the end of the academic year in which the CLIL program started (time 2). The language samples obtained at time 2 were analyzed for intelligibility and foreign accent in a previous study (Rallo Fabra and Juan-Garau 2011).
References
Amengual, M. (2012). Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effects in a continuum of bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15, 517–530.
Bahrani, T., & Shu Sim, T. (2012). Informal language setting: Technology or social interaction. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 11(2), 142–149.
Basetti, B. (2009). Orthographic input and second language phonology. In T. Piske & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), Input matters in SLA (pp. 191–206). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Boersma, P., & Weenink, D. (2013). Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 5.3.41. http://www.praat.org/. Accessed 12 Feb 2013.
Burnham, D. K., Tyler, M., & Horlyck, S. (2002). Periods of speech perception development and their vestiges in adulthood. In A. Rohde (Ed.), An integrated view of language development: Papers in honor of Henning Wode (pp. 281–300). Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.
Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H., & Boves, L. (2000). Quantitative assessment of second language learners’ fluency by means of automatic speech recognition technology. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 107, 989–999.
Cucchiarini, C., Strik, H., & Boves, L. (2002). Quantitative assessment of second language learners’ fluency: Comparisons between read and spontaneous speech. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111, 2862–2873.
De Jong, N., & Wempe, T. (2009). Praat script to detect syllable nuclei and measure speech rate automatically. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 385–390. doi:10.3758/BRM.41.2.385.
Demenko, G., Wagner, A., Cylwick, N., & Jokisch, O. (2009). An audiovisual feedback system for acquiring L2 pronunciation and L2 prosody (pp. 2–5). 2nd ISCA workshop on Speech and Language Technology in Education (SLaTE).
Derwing, T. M., Rossiter, M. J., Munro, M. J., & Thomson, R. I. (2004). Second language fluency: Judgments on different tasks. Language Learning, 54, 655–679.
Derwing, T. M., Munro, M. J., Thomson, R. I., & Rossiter, M. J. (2009). The relationship between L1 fluency and L2 fluency development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 31, 533–557.
Erdener, V. D., & Burnham, D. K. (2005). The role of audiovisual speech and orthograpic information in nonnative speech production. Language Learning, 55, 191–228.
Fillmore, C. J. (1979). On fluency. In C. J. Fillmore, D. Kempler, & W. S.-Y. Wang (Eds.), Individual differences in language ability and language behavior (pp. 85–101). New York: Academic.
Flege, J. E. (1995). Second language speech learning: Theory, findings, and problems. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience: Issues in cross-language research (pp. 233–277). Baltimore: York Press.
Fry, E. (2004). Phonics: A large phoneme-grapheme frequency count revised. Journal of Literacy Research, 36, 85–98.
Fullana, N. (2006). The development of English (FL) perception and production skills: Starting age and exposure effects. In C. Muñoz (Ed.), Age and the rate of foreign language learning (pp. 41–64). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Gallardo del Puerto, F., Gómez Lacabex, E., & García Lecumberri, M. L. (2009). Testing the effectiveness of content and language integrated learning in foreign language contexts: The assessment of English pronunciation. In Y. Ruiz de Zarobe & R. Jiménez Catalan (Eds.), Content and language integrated learning. Evidence from research in Europe (pp. 63–80). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Genesee, F. (1987). Learning through two languages: Studies of immersion and bilingual education. New York: Newbury House.
Hammerly, H. (1991). Fluency and accuracy. Toward balance in language teaching and learning. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Harada, T. (2007). The production of voice onset time (VOT) by English-speaking children in a Japanese immersion program. International Review of Applied Linguistics, 45, 353–378.
Iwashita, N., Brown, A., McNamara, T., & O’Hagan, S. (2008). Assessed levels of second language speaking proficiency: How distinct? Applied Linguistics, 29, 24–49.
Juan-Garau, M., & Salazar-Noguera, J. (2015). Learning English and learning through English: Insights from secondary education. In M. Juan-Garau & J. Salazar-Noguera (Eds.), Content-based language learning in multilingual educational environments (pp. 105–121). Berlin: Springer.
Kormos, J. (2006). Speech production and second language acquisition. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lennon, P. (1990). Investigating fluency in EFL: A quantitative approach. Language Learning, 40, 387–417.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: From intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lisker, L., & Abramson, A. (1964). A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements. Word, 20, 384–422.
Mich, O., Neri, A., & Giuliani, D. (2006). The effectiveness of a computer assisted pronunciation training system for young language learners. In Proceedings of CALL 2006 (pp. 135–143), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, 20–22 August 2006.
Modiano, M. (1996). European English. World Englishes, 15, 207–215.
Mora, J. C., & Valls-Ferrer, M. (2012). Oral fluency, accuracy and complexity in formal instruction and study abroad learning contexts. TESOL Quarterly, 46, 610–641.
Neri, A., Cucchiarini, C., & Strik, H. (2006). ASR-based corrective feedback on pronunciation: Does it really work? In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing INTERSPEECH 2006 (pp. 1982–1985), Pittsburgh 17–21 September 2006.
Rafat, Y. (2010). Orthography as a conditioning factor in L2 transfer: Evidence from English speakers’ production of Spanish consonants. In Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech, New Sounds 2010. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 1–3 May 2010.
Rallo Fabra, L. (1998). Speaking rate effects in Catalan and English. A cross-language study. Estudios de Fonética Experimental, IX, 243–272.
Rallo Fabra, L., & Juan-Garau, M. (2011). Assessing EFL pronunciation in a semi-immersion setting: The effects of CLIL instruction on Spanish-Catalan learners perceived comprehensibility and accentedness. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 47, 96–108.
Rallo Fabra, L., & Romero, J. (2012). Native Catalan learners’ perception and production of English vowels. Journal of Phonetics, 40(3), 491–508.
Schmidt, R. (1992). Psychological mechanisms underlying second language fluency. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14, 357–385.
Segalowitz, N. (2007). Access fluidity, attention control, and the acquisition of fluency in a second language. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 181–186.
Segalowitz, N. (2010). Cognitive bases of second language fluency. New York: Routledge.
Strange, W. (1995). Cross-language studies of speech perception. A historical review. In W. Strange (Ed.), Speech perception and linguistic experience (pp. 3–46). Baltimore: York Press.
Toivola, M., Lennes, M., Korvala, J., & Aho, E. (2010, May 1–3). A longitudinal study of speech rate and pauses in non-native Finnish. In K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, M. Wrembel, & M. Kul (Eds.), Proceedings of the 6th international symposium on the acquisition of second language speech, new sounds 2010 (pp. 499–504). Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by research grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (HUM2007-66053-C02-01/02, FFI2010-21483-C02-02 and FFI2013-48640-C2-1/2-P) and the Catalan Government (SGR2005-01086/2009-140/2014-1563).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rallo Fabra, L., Jacob, K. (2015). Does CLIL Enhance Oral Skills? Fluency and Pronunciation Errors by Spanish-Catalan Learners of English. In: Juan-Garau, M., Salazar-Noguera, J. (eds) Content-based Language Learning in Multilingual Educational Environments. Educational Linguistics, vol 23. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11496-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11496-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-11495-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-11496-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)