ORAL PRESENTATION

TSLB 3173
Presented by: AIK YONG QI G8.5
 Research Title:
Speaking Fluency of Proficient Group Primary
Pupils in SJKC ESL Classroom and Contributing
Factors
RESEARCH PROBLEM

Speaking fluency makes speech comprehensible, becoming one of the

conditions which ensure successful communication. Wilkins (1972) wrote that
“...while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing
can be convey” (pp. 111–112). However, during her SBE at Chinese primary
school, the researcher found that some of the proficient group of pupils were
unable to speak English fluently although they have a good range of vocabulary.
As minimal attention had been drawn towards the factors affecting speaking
fluency among the proficient group of pupils in Chinese primary school, the
researcher was interested to explore about how fluent in speaking are the
proficient group of Chinese primary school pupils and the factors contributing to
their speaking fluency.
 Research Objectives:
Research Aim:
i. To examine the speaking fluency of
• To explore speaking proficient group primary pupils
fluency of proficient group
ii. To explore about factors
primary pupils in SJKC contributing to the proficient group
ESL classroom and primary pupils’ English speaking
contributing factors fluency
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS:

1. How fluent in speaking are the proficient group primary pupils?

2. What are the factors contributing to the proficient group primary pupils’ English
speaking fluency?
Context of Study
The study was conducted at a Chinese primary school at
suburban area. The school consists of 160 students and
23 teachers, with only 3 of them are English teachers.
English lessons are conducted for 5 to 6 periods (2.5 to 3
hours) a week at that school. For this study, the four
participants selected were the year 4 pupils who obtained
good results in their English tests.
 KEY CONCEPTS

Speaking Fluency:
“…the features which give the speech the qualities of being natural and
normal, including the native-like use of pausing, rhythm, intonation, stress, the
rate of speaking, and use of interjections and interruptions…” (Richards & Willy,
2002)

“…delivering messages in normal speed without awkward words, exchanging

the ideas clearly and understandable way, and the using of simple words that
aims to make listeners understand…” (Zhang, 2009)
Elements of Speaking Fluency
Components of speaking fluency by Skehan (2009):

 Breakdown fluency (time filled with speech, no. of pauses,

filled pauses)

 Speed fluency (speech rate measured as words per minute,

syllables per minute)

 Repair fluency (false starts, repetitions)

Factors Affecting Speaking Fluency
Three types of factors which affect speaking fluency
(Derakhshan et al., 2016):-

cognitive factors,

linguistic factors

affective factors.
 RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Purposeful
Sampling

• The pupils were

selected based on
their overall English
tests result in the four
skills

• pupils who got at least

level 5 in their overall
English tests result
 DATA COLLECTION
Speech-recording:
• audio-record the pupils’ speeches
• Carried out during MCO period (February 2021)
• 4 pupils’ speeches were recorded
• Given 2 minutes of preparation and 2 minutes to talk about the topic “My Family”
• All the pupils’ speeches were recorded once
• the speeches were transcribed using Otter.ai
 TRANSCRIPTION OF DATA
-the speech was replayed to identify the long
pauses (pauses longer than 2 seconds as
suggested by Jefferson (1989)

-the speech transcription was read to identify

the components of speaking fluency (long
pause, filled pause, repetition, rephrasing,
self-correction and false starts) as stated by
Skehan (2009)

-The components were marked with different

symbols by referring to Table 3.6.1.1
 DATA COLLECTION
Interview:
• Carried out during MCO period (February 2021)
• One-on-one interview
• Semi-structured form, which was generally organized around a set of preset
questions with other questions emerged from the conversation between the
interviewer and interviewee in order to pursue an idea or response in more
detail (Britten, 1955).
• 4 pupils and an English teacher were interviewed
• The pupils’ interviews were carried out right after the speech-recording
• Questions and responses were audiotaped
 DATA ANALYSIS
• Speech Analysis
• to explore the speaking fluency of the proficient group of primary ESL pupils

• counting the frequency of each component in speaking fluency (long pause, filled
pause, repetition, self-correction and false starts) in each pupil’s transcription.

• assessed the pupils’ speaking fluency by referring to the speaking rubric adapted

• compared the frequency of each component among the pupils.

• results of pupils’ speaking fluency was tabulated.

 Speaking Fluency Rubric
Level Description
5 Native-like fluency: Candidate utterance exhibits smooth phrasing, with no
more than one hesitation, repetitions, and false start.
4 Advanced fluency: Candidate utterance has appropriate phrasing with no
more than five hesitations, repetitions or false starts.
3 Good fluency: Candidate speech may be somewhat uneven. Long utterances
may exhibit some hesitations; but most words are spoken in continuous
phrases. There are several repetitions or false starts per utterance. Speech
has no too many long pauses.
2 Intermediate fluency: Candidate speech may be uneven. There are several
hesitations, repetitions or false starts. Speech may have several long pauses,
but not unlimited.
1 Limited fluency: Candidate speech has irregular phrasing. Poor phrasing,
multiple hesitations, many repetitions or false starts render the spoken
performance notably uneven or discontinuous. Long utterances have several
long pauses.

(Adapted from Jong & Hulstijn (2009) Fluency Scale Ordinate Corporation)
 DATA ANALYSIS
Interview:

Coding Process (Creswell, 2013):

Divide texts into Label segments of Reduce overlap Collapse

Initially read
segments of information with and redundancy codes into
through data
information codes of codes themes
 FINDINGS ACCORDING TO DATA SOURCE
Results of Speech Analysis
-To explore the English speaking fluency of the proficient group of ESL primary pupils

-The results on their speech analysis are presented in Table 4.1.

Table 4.1 Proficient Group of ESL Primary Pupils’ Speaking Fluency

Participants Pupil A Pupil B Pupil C Pupil D

Speaking Level 2- Level 1- Level 2- Level 2-

Fluency Intermediate Limited Intermediate Intermediate
fluency fluency fluency fluency

• Pupils A,C and D have intermediate fluency

• Pupil B has limited fluency
The transcriptions are as follows:

Level 2- Intermediate fluency

Extract 1 (Pupil A):

My family has / has seven people, twelve - include me. My father hobby is ride
bicycle. My mother hobby is cooking. // I like, I- My hobby is drawing. // My sister //
hobby is also drawing. // My / my brother love to play badminton // I also have a little
brother. His hobby is // is / is colouring. // That’s all my -That’s all for me. Thank you.

Table 4.1.1 Frequency of Speaking Fluency Components in Pupil A’s Transcription

Long Pause Filled Pause Repetition Self-correct False-start Total
Frequency
7 0 3 2 1 13
Level 1- Limited fluency

Extract 2 (Pupil B):

My family have five pupil. One is my father, two is my mother, three is my brother, four
is my sister. What \\ Five is me. My father/ my father // have three cars. // He / He //
He work is / is // He work is // My father he work is fishing. My mother is // My mother is
/ is // My mother she / she loves eat vegetable and meat. My / my brother he likes to ,
he favourite game is football and // and / and //badminton. My sister he - she fa-
favourite game is dra-dra- // drawing and swimming. My favourite / my favourite
game is swimming and / and sing.

Table 4.1.2 Frequency of Speaking Fluency components in Pupil B’s Transcription

Long Pause Filled Pause Repetition Self-correct False-start Total
Frequency
9 0 8 1 1 19
Level 2- Intermediate fluency

Extract 3 (Pupil C):

My name is Daania Aleesya. I have seven family members. I have five siblings.
My \\ I have two brother and three, two sister // and my father name is
Iskandar Zulkarnain, and my mum is Siti Normala // ,um, // My / my // ,um, //
,um, my bro, my / my // My hobby is become a teacher // - My hobby is to
reading book, storybook. // We always watching movie together.

Table 4.1.3 Frequency of Speaking Fluency Components in Pupil C’s Transcription

Long Pause Filled Pause Repetition Self-correct False-start Total

Frequency

8 3 2 1 1 15
Level 2- Intermediate Fluency

Extract 4 (Pupil D):

My name is Rance Fu , em, em, I am four - ten years old. I have a sister. I like
my family.// My hobby //- I like to swimming and ride bicycle.// My sister likes
to ride bicycle, em ,// and play/ and play ball.

Table 4.1.4 Frequency of Speaking Fluency Components in Pupil D’s Transcription

Long Pause Filled Pause Repetition Self-correct False-start Total
Frequency

4 3 1 1 1 10
From the transcriptions, the speech is analyzed as follows:

i. Long pause
Among the four, Pupils B had 9 times of long pauses, which was the most. Followed by
Pupil C, 8 times and Pupil A, 7 times. Pupil D only had 4 times of long pauses in his
speech.

ii. Filled pause

Filled pauses such as “um” and “em” can be found in the transcriptions of Pupils C
and D. Both of them produced 3 times of “um” (Pupil C) and “em” (Pupil D) in their
speech.

iii. Repetition
Repetition can be found in the transcription of all the four pupils. Pupil A had 3 times of
repetition. Pupil B made the most repetition of 8 times. As for Pupil C, made for 2 times,
which is then followed by the least, 1 time of repetition by Pupil D.
iV. Self-correction
Self-correction was used by the four pupils. Pupil A self-corrected the word “twelve” with
“include me” and the phrase “That’s all my...” with That’s all for me”. Pupil B self-corrected
the pronoun “He” with “She” when she was referring to her sister. Pupil C self-corrected the
sentence “My hobby is become a teacher...” with “My hobby is to reading book,
storybook...”. As for Pupil D, he self-corrected “four...” with “ten years old”.

V. False start
False start was found in the four pupils’ transcription. Pupil A ,“I like, I- My hobby...”; Pupil B,
“What - five is me....”; Pupil C, “ My - I have two brother...”; Pupil D, “My hobby - I like...”
Each of them had a false start in their speech.
Results of Interview
-to explore the factors contributing to the proficient group of ESL primary school pupils’ English
speaking fluency

Based on the interview conducted, 5 themes emerged as follows:

 Home environment

 Peer influence

 Classroom practice

 Teacher’s belief

 Affective factors
 Theme 1: Home Environment

Use of English
Language by Family English Materials at
Members Home
Home Environement:

Use of English Language by

Family Members

Excerpt 1(Pupil A)
Excerpt 4 (Pupil D)
Pupil A: None
(Interview 1, line 13)
Pupil D: Yes. We all speak English.
(Interview 4, line 422)
Home Environement:
English Materials at home
Excerpt 5 (Pupil A)
Pupil A: English movies and Tv .....one or
two times every week. English
songs sometimes. English books
only two....three times one month.
(Interview 1, line 22-23)
Excerpt 10 (Pupil D)
Pupil D: Every month, em, one time... (English
movies)
(Interview 4, line 433)
Excerpt 11 (Pupil D)
Pupil D: English books one, two books every
week, em, English songs no...
(Interview 4, line 435
• None of the family members of Pupil A speak English at home (as shown in
Excerpt 1). His only exposure to English language while at home is when he
watches English movies and TV, listening to English songs and reading English
books (as shown in excerpt 5). Pupil B also does not speak English at home.

• As the mother tongue of Pupil D is English, all of his family members speak
English at home. Besides, he is also exposed to English language through
English materials at home, which the English materials for Pupil D were
illustrated in Excerpt 10 and Excerpt 11.
 Theme 2: Peer Influence

Friends’ Spoken Friends’ Language

Language Levels
Peer Influence:
Friends’ Spoken Language

Excerpt 12 (Pupil B)
Pupil B: 因为我如果跟他们讲英文的话他们还 Excerpt 13 (Pupil D)
是用华文回我(because if I speak to them in Pupil D: Em, my friends only talk Chinese
English, they still reply me in Chinese) (Interview 4, line 446)
(Interview 2, line 195)
Peer Influence:
Friends’ Language Level

Excerpt 14 (Pupil C)
Pupil C: Because sometimes they don’t know what it means….
(Interview 3, line 309)
• Pupils B, C and D responded that they did not speak English to their friends
outside ESL classroom.
• Their reasons of not speaking English to their friends were related to their
friends’ spoken language and language levels.
• Pupils B and D responded that their friends only spoke to them in Chinese (a
shown in Excerpt 12 and Excerpt 13).
• As for Pupil C, she responded that she spoke Chinese to her friends as her
friends did not understand what she said if she spoke in English (as shown in
Excerpt 14).
 Theme 3: Classroom
Practices

Language Used during

Speaking Activities
English Lesson
Teaching Materials
Classroom Practices:
Language Used During
English Lesson

Excerpt 18 (Pupil D)
Interviewer :So, how about English class, do you Excerpt 20 (Teacher)
use Chinese to speak to your friends, or Teacher: ...during lesson is a mixture of
you use English? English, Mandarin and sometimes even Malay.
Pupil D :Chinese However, English will be the main component
(Interview 4, line 449-451) during my speech. I can see maybe around
95% of English and 5% of Mandarin and Malay
Excerpt 19 (Pupil D) in order for them to understand the lesson
Interviewer. :You speak English to your English well, to understand certain difficult
teacher, or Chinese to your English vocabularies...
teacher when you are having English (Interview 5, line 589-593)
class?
Pupil D :English.
(Interview 4, line 455-457)
Classroom Practices:
Teaching Materials
Excerpt 23 (Pupil C)
Pupil C:...watch video sometimes ...
(Interview 3, line 362)
Excerpt 25 (Teacher)
Teacher: ... For the CEFR English, there are
videos on different songs. I 'll get
them to sing the song. And then
after that... get a few troopers to
speak something about the song.
(Interview 5, line 682-685)
Excerpt 24 (Teacher)
Teacher: When I enter a new topic. I will use pictures,
illustrations to have the pupils to speak. There
was a time, I brought the picture of Trump to the
class and asked them some questions like "Do
you know him?" I will let them reply . I also used
a world map to get the student to speak and ask
them...“Students, can you see this? " " What is
this? “…
(Interview 5, line 663-668)
Classroom Practices:
Speaking Activities
Excerpt 26 (Pupil A)
Pupil A:..Sometimes
...very less...
(Interview 1, line 100-102)
Excerpt 28 (Teacher)
Teacher :...Actually, not much activities
which focus only on speaking skills
are carried out. I would rather say
the speaking activities are more to
ask questions and they answer
me when I want to introduce
about the vocabulary to them for
reading lesson.
(Interview 5, line 670-673)
• As shown in Excerpt 18, the pupil responded that he spoke Chinese to his
friends during English lesson. English was used when speaking to English
teacher.
• The use of mother tongues by teacher in ESL classroom was illustrated in
Excerpt 20. He explained that he used the pupils ’mother tongues in ESL
classroom in order to get pupils understand some difficult vocabulary (as
shown in Excerpt 21).
• As for the teaching materials, Pupil C responded that the teacher used video
during English lesson (as shown in Excerpt 23). The way teacher used video to
get pupils practice speaking was illustrated in Excerpt 25.
• Apart from that, as show in Excerpt 24, the teacher illustrated how he used
authentic materials and asked a few questions related to the materials to
prompt pupils to speak during English lesson.
• Pupil A responded that the speaking activities carried out were very less (as
shown in Excerpt 26). This is supported by the teacher’s response as illustrated in
Excerpt 28, the speaking activities were carried out implicitly, when the
teacher wanted to introduce vocabulary.
 Theme 4: Teacher’s Belief
Excerpt 29 (Teacher)
Teacher: ...vocabulary is very important. For me,
teaching them, let them have a better
command of vocabularies. And then from
there, slowly this will build up their confidence
to speak.
(Interview 5, line 657-659)

Excerpt 30 (Teacher)
Teacher:...focus on build up their vocab
so that they have enough vocab
to express themselves...
(Interview 5, line 676-677)
• The teacher believed that having better command on vocabulary can build
up their confidence to speak (as shown in Excerpt 29) and able to express
themselves (as shown in Excerpt 30).

• The teacher could have this belief which affected his classroom practices as
he responded that, “...because now the issue with most of these pupils are
they, they do not read, they hardly speak. So, for them the command of
vocabulary or words that they know are so limited...” (Interview 5, line 649-
651)
•
 Theme 5: Affective Factors

Anxiety Personality

Self-esteem Attitudes
Affective Factor:
Anxiety

Excerpt 31(Pupil A)
Pupil A:......not comfortable...(to speak in Excerpt 32 (Pupil C)
English) Pupil C: ...Feel nervous...
(Interview 1, line 50) ...I...afraid....less time
...Because of not enough time…
(Interview 3, line 369-377)
Affective Factor:
Self-esteem

Excerpt 33 (Pupil A)
Pupil A: ...I think I cannot speak well Excerpt 34 (Pupil B)
(Interview 1, line 61) Pupil B:...我觉得不会讲到这样好(I don’t think
I speak well)
(Interview 2, line 243)
• Pupils A and C were having anxiety in speaking English. Pupil A said that he
was “not comfortable” to speak in English (as shown in Excerpt 31). This
anxiety of him was due to low self-esteem. This is shown through his response,
“...I think I cannot speak well” (as shown in Excerpt 33) when he was asked
about the reason for being not comfortable when speaking English.

• Excerpt 32 illustrated Pupil C was nervous as she was afraid as the time given
for preparing the speech was less. As for Pupil B, she was having low self-
esteem as she did not think that she can speak well in English (as shown in
Excerpt 33).
Affective Factor:
Attitudes
Excerpt 41 (Teacher)
Excerpt 43 (Teacher)
Teacher:...and then come to any opportunity to
Teacher:...They already have the mindset
speak, they will seriously put in the
“English cannot lah, don’t know
effort to, to get the appropriate word,
lah.”..., you see sometimes, I'm just,
the actual word or get to convey the
I'm just hope that this group of
message they want to speak...you can
students they can answer “Yes” or
see the improvement come to them in
just maybe “No”. But they don’t even
the speaking fluency aspect...
come out with a yes or no.They will
(Interview 5, line 752-757)
say“是” ,“可以”...
(Interview 5, line 758-762)

Excerpt 36 (Pupil A)
Pupil A: Um.....用英文才能跟外国人讲话(can speak to the foreigners if I can speak
English)
(Interview 1, line 134-135)
• Pupil A had positive attitudes towards English as she realised the importance
and function of English language(as shown in Excerpt 36)

• As shown in Excerpt 41, the teacher described about how pupils ’positive
attitudes towards English can improve their English speaking fluency. As for
pupils who have negative attitudes towards English, they refused to use the
language although they were given chances to practice the language (as
shown in Excerpt 43).
Affective Factor:
Personality
Excerpt 44 (Teacher)
Teacher:...”jovial” kind of pupils...when they
see me, they will still use some
broken English at time...Even though
they speak broken English, but they
can speak fluent, quite fluent...They
are daring enough to speak English
outside the classroom.
(Interview 5, line 610-615)
Teacher: ...the majority of them they are very
shy. They are over concern about
their spoken language in English, the
mistakes they might make when
speaking in English...because I will
correct their speaking outside the
classroom...
(Interview 5, line 616-619)
• The teacher responded that pupils who are extrovert tend to speak fluently
as they speak English to him outside the classroom even though they speak
broken English (as shown in Excerpt 44). As for the introvert, they are shy to
speak to him outside the classroom as he will correct their mistakes (as shown
in Excerpt 45).
 CONCLUSION BASED ON FINDINGS

Speech Analysis:

the proficient group primary pupils have intermediate fluency

 CONCLUSION BASED ON FINDINGS
Interview:

Home environment contributes to proficient group pupils’ speaking fluency

“A child’s family and home environment has a strong impact on his/her language and literacy
development and educational achievement” (Cole, 2011).

Peer influence contributes to proficient group pupils’ speaking fluency

Learners of English can enhance their second language acquisition and oral proficiency by exposure
to everyday socialisation contexts. These everyday socialisation contexts include interactions within
student peer groups (Kinginger, 2009).
 CONCLUSION BASED ON FINDINGS
Classroom practices contribute to proficient group pupils’ speaking fluency

“…it is essential that language teachers pay considerable attention to teaching speaking,
rather than leading the students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where
meaningful communication takes place is desired. ”(Abdulayeva & Mirzoyeva, 2014)

 Teacher’s belief contributes to proficient group pupils’ speaking fluency (New finding)

Affective factors contribute to proficient group pupils’ speaking fluency

“…affective factor as the emotional side of human behaviour can influence speaking
fluency…” (Thornbury, 2005)
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THE END