The Development of Chinese Fluency During Study Abroad in China

Author(s): HANG DU
Source: The Modern Language Journal , Spring 2013, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Spring 2013), pp.
131-143
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers
Associations

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 The Development of Chinese Fluency
During Study Abroad in China
HANG DU

Chinese Department
Middlebury College
106 Voter Hall

Middlebury, VT 05753
Email: hdu@middlebury.edu

This article is part of a longitudinal study of American college students studying Mandarin in
China. Its main data are drawn from monthly speaking events (four sessions with each student)
conducted in Chinese with each of 29 participants in a study-abroad program in China. The study
yielded these results: (a) Students made significant progress in their fluency development,
especially during the first month; (b) speaking Chinese both inside and outside of class helped
fluency; (c) students who consistently spoke Chinese in class and out of class made more progress
than those who did not; and (d) time on task, the amount of time that students spent using
Chinese, was the most important factor in determining fluency development. The quantitative
analysis that is the focus of this article is supplemented by qualitative data from individual
students, reflecting the position that only a combination of quantitative and qualitative data can
reveal a complete picture of the nature of language acquisition during study abroad. The article
concludes with implications for the design and conduct of programs in China.

OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DECADES, MUCH In order to gain a better understanding of
knowledge has been gained about American
the nature of language development during
college students studying a variety of languages
study abroad in China, I conducted a three-year
in a range of countries, yet very litde is known
longitudinal study that involved 53 students. In this
about the study of Mandarin Chinese in China. article, I draw on data collected in the fall semester
This is striking given that a growing number of 2008 that focused on fluency development, a
topic that has long been of great interest to
American college students study Chinese in China
for a summer, a semester, or even longer. Since
multiple parties, among them teachers, students,
and program administrators. At the same time,
the 1980s, more than fifty American study-abroad
programs for college students have been estab because the program in question has a "Chinese
lished in Mainland China (Han, 2008). According
only" policy regarding language use, the study also
to the Institute for International Education investigates the effect of time on task, the amount of
(I.I.E.), China ranked fifth on the list of
timemost
that students spend speaking and using the
popular study-abroad destinations for American
target language, on the development of fluency. A
students from 2008 to 2012. (For additional in
closer examination of the nature of time on task

has been suggested in order to explain the

formation, see http://www.iie.org/en/Research
and-Publications/Open-Doors). intriguing finding that some study-abroad sojourn
ers seemingly made less progress in their fluency
development than did those who stayed at home
The Modem Language Journal, 97, 1, (2013) (e.g., Freed, Segalowitz, & Dewey, 2004). In other
DOI: 10.1 lll/j.1540-4781.2013.01434.x words, because just staying in the country turns
0026-7902/13/131-143 $1.50/0
out not to be sufficient for noteworthy progress
© 2013 The Modem Language Journal
in language performance, a more fine-grained

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132 The Modem Language Journal 97 (2013)

analysis by investigating fluency through the Using a corpus of ACTFL Oral Proficiency
construct of task and more specifically time on
Interview (OPI) data from a group of students
task is suggested. who had studied in the regular program at their
home institution, a group who had studied in an
FLUENCY intensive program in the home country, and a
group who had studied abroad, the authors took
The term fluency is used by laypersons twoand
one-minute segments from each interview
starting
language professionals alike, but its definition is at the randomly selected 7th and 12th
elusive. In their comprehensive review of minutes
the and made a calculation for each student
literature, Freed et al. (2004) discussed research
by these above 9 measures. Statistical analyses
on fluency in the native language (LI) and showed
the that the students in the domestic immer
target language (L2) from different disciplinary
sion program made significant progress in Total
perspectives and concluded that fluency is a Longest Turn, Speech Rate, and a
Words,
complex phenomenon involving linguistic, psy
composite measure of fluidity consisting of the 5
cholinguistic, and sociolinguistic factors. Not of speech measures without Speech Rate.
fluidity
surprisingly, many researchers have demonstrated
The study-abroad students made progress only in
that study abroad can enhance students' develop
the composite measure of fluidity, and the group
of (e.g.,
ment of fluency in the target language students who studied at the home institution
DeKeyser, 1986,1991;Juan-Garau & Perez-Vidal,
made no progress by any of the measures.
2007; Möhle, 1984; Raupach, 1984; Towell,
Hawkins, & Bazergui, 1996; Trenchs-Parera,
TIME ON TASK
2009; Wood, 2007). For example, Freed (1995)
showed that students who studied abroad spokeTime on task in the Freed et al. (2004) study wa
faster and more smoothly and were able to defined
speak as time spent using the target language
continuously for a longer period of timeespecially
than in speaking it. The finding that, overal
students who did not study abroad. Huebner students who studied abroad made less progress
in their
(1995) found that beginning students who spent a fluency than those who studied in an
summer in Japan produced longer narratives immersion
in program in the United States seem
retelling a part of the story of Charlie Chaplin's
surprising. Study-abroad students are surrounde
by speakers of the target language. One possibl
silent film Modern Times than their counterparts
who stayed at home, even when both groups explanation, as the authors pointed out, is tha
followed the same curriculum. Collentine'seven
(2004)though the students in the domestic imme
comparative study of students who studied sionat group and the study-abroad group spen
home and those who studied abroad providedsimilar numbers of hours in the classroom, the
evidence that study-abroad students achieved
immersion students reported spending more time
higher degrees of semantic density inspeaking
their French than the study-abroad students
narratives, which, according to Fillmore (1979),
who reported speaking more English outside o
constitutes an indicator of fluency. Usingclass.
sevenIn other words, regardless of the context of
measures of dysfluency phenomena, Trenchs learning, students who spend more time on tas
Parera (2009) found that, after studying abroad,
using the target language tend to make more
progress in fluency than those who do not.
the students in her study demonstrated dysfluency
Similarly, Martinsen and his colleagues conclud
patterns more similar to those of native speakers
and therefore appeared to be more fluent ed and
that time on task, not context of studies alone
confident about their skills in the L2. provided the best explanation for the results of
More specifically and building on previous their study (Martinsen et al., 2010). Student
research, Freed and her colleagues developed a who lived in an academic interest house on the
series of 9 measures of oral fluency in French campus of an American university and pledged
based on "measures of temporal and hesitation to speak only Spanish in the house and in a host
phenomena." The first 6 are related to fluidity of of house-related extracurricular activities spent a
speech: Speech Rate, Hesitation-Free Speechsimilar amount of time speaking Spanish and
Runs, Filler-Free Speech Runs, Fluent Runs,made similar gains in their fluency as a study
Repetition-Free Speech Runs, and Grammatical abroad group that, prior to its sojourn in Spain,
Repair-Free Speech Runs. The last three are had a proficiency level similar to the house group.
measures of general oral performance: TotalIn another study, Martinsen and his colleagues
Words Spoken, Duration of Speaking Time, andfound that students who lived in foreign-language
Longest Turn (Freed et al. 2004, pp. 285-286).housing at an American university spent

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Hang Du 133

significantly more time using the target languages 2. What is the effect of time on task on students'

(French, German, and Japanese), with most of fluency development? Specifically, are there
that time coming outside the classroom. They differences in fluency development between
made more progress in their overall oral profi students who observe the language pledge
ciency and became more confident in speaking outside of class and those who do not?
the L2 than did a group of students who studied an
L2 in the classroom exclusively (Martinsen Because fluency develops over a long period of
et al., 2011). time and study abroad is a complicated phenome
The hypothesis that students who spend more non, a longitudinal research design and a
time on task tend to make more progress in their combination of quantitative and qualitative ap
fluency development can be investigated more proaches were used in order to capture some
closely in the context of the study-abroad program nuances and provide a fuller picture of the context
in China that hosted the present study because this of students' language use. Such a methodology has
program, like most study-abroad programs in been advocated by many researchers (e.g., De
China run by American institutions, has a Keyser, 1991; Erickson, 1991; Freed, 1998; Freed
language pledge policy (Mu, 2008). et al., 2004) and has been used in research on a
A language pledge is probably easier to imple number of languages, for example, Isabelli-Garci'a
ment in Chinese programs because the students' (2004) on Spanish and Kinginger (2008) on
language proficiency very rarely permits them to French. This study applies the recommended
enroll directly in classes at the host or other local methodology to a study-abroad program in China
universities alongside native speakers. Students with a focus on fluency, such that quantitative
therefore tend to take classes specially designed analysis is complemented by qualitative data in
for them. In addition, they generally live together order to arrive at possible explanations for differ
in a dorm, making supervision and enforcement of ences in fluency development among these study
the pledge easier than if they were fully integrated abroad participants.
into the campus community. A survey of several
METHOD
major study-abroad programs in Beijing shows that
most students in those programs support such a Research Site
policy, at least in theory (Mu, 2008). However, in
reality, while some students are strict observers The program where the study was conducted
of this policy, there are always some who speak jointly operated by a small liberal arts colleg
English outside of class and out of the earshot of the Northeastern United States and a U.S.-based
their teachers. The same is true with the program organization with long experience running study
in this study. In fact, according to the director abroad programs for American college students in
of this program, oftentimes there was tension China. It was hosted by a university in a city in
between a group of students that was strict about eastern China with a population of about seven
observing the pledge and a group that was not. million. It used the facilities of the host university,
This makes it possible to test whether time on task, including classrooms, but otherwise operated
especially the consistent use of Chinese outside of autonomously. The academic director, who was
class, can make a difference in students' fluency hired by the American college, was in charge of
development. How the students were assigned to hiring local teachers, either teachers or graduate
the two groups will be explained in the Method students at various local universities. At the
section. beginning of the program, students were requir
to sign a pledge to speak only Chinese both in cl
and outside of class for the duration of their
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND enrollment in the program.
METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Each student took four classes, including two
With the above as background, the researchfrom among a list of electives: Business
classes
questions to be addressed are: Chinese, Classical Chinese, Newspaper Reading,
Discussion and Debate, and Modern Chinese
1. Do students improve their fluency inLiterature.
Chinese Each student also took a one-on-one
after a semester of Mandarin Chinese tutorial in which s/he worked with a teacher on a
language studies in China? If so, whattopic
areof the student's choice, including the
the stages of development? Is thereOlympics,
clear, women's issues, Sino-American rela
continuous improvement from the tions,begin the Chinese middle class, Christianity in
ning to the end of the term of study? China, Chinese youth, Chinese medicine, rock

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134 The Modem Language Journal 97 (2013)

music in China, and so on. For the fourth class, statistical analyses of this study. Rather, their
about half of the students participated in a one-on overall proficiency was within the range of the
two tutorial, in which 1 teacher worked with 2 whole group, as ascertained through a pre
students on pronunciation and everyday language departure computer test, described in the next
use. Because of relatively good pronunciation as section, that tested reading and grammar. The
established through the oral entrance interview, same was true of all their measures of fluency as
the remaining students placed out of this class; tested at the beginning of the program; none was a
instead, they were enrolled in a class focusing on heritage speaker.
the history and culture of the host city.
Students attended each class four hours a week,
resulting in a total of 16 hours a week of contact Data Collection
with an instructor. For each class, students had
weekly tests or papers, daily homework assign I collected data from this group in the fall of
ments, a midterm, and a final exam. All students 2008, through participant observations, including
ate lunch twice a week in the dining hall at the participation in official extracurricular activities
Chinese Table, giving them an opportunity for such as hiking and camping, lunch at the Chinese
casual conversation with classmates and teachers. Table, and informal dinners to which some groups
Each student lived with a Chinese roommate in the of students invited me. I also conducted non

building that housed the program office. Theirparticipant observations by watching student
roommates were students at the host universityinteracting with teachers and classmates in class
who were instructed to speak only Chinese with theand giving oral presentations for their one-on-o
American students. courses during the midterm and final exams
The program sponsored a host of extracurricu took detailed field notes during or immediate
lar activities, such as group camping and hiking after these activities. I had access to students'
trips, group trips to nearby cities, and a barbecuehomework assignments and their final course
for the Chinese Moon Festival. Some activities took grades. At the end of the program, I interviewe
the form of classes that met regularly each week,the teachers of the students' regular classes
such as cooking, martial arts, Chinese painting, (i.e., classes other than the one-on-one and the
calligraphy, and so on. In addition, students were one-on-two) about each student's performance
encouraged to travel alone or with their room and progress throughout the semester. This array
mates and were reimbursed partially for theirof observations provided me with detailed know
expenses on such trips. edge of students' social lives, their peer associa
tions, and their language use outside of class.
Most students filled out a pre-departure ques
tionnaire right before going to China and an afte
Participants
program questionnaire at the end of the program
Of the 33 students enrolled in the program, 29 Both before and after studying in China, most also
volunteered to participate in the study: 13 males took a computer adaptive reading test used by
and 16 females. Twenty were from the American Middlebury College's Chinese summer school
college that ran the program and 8 from six This test rated students in the terms of the ACTFL

other U.S. institutions; 1 student had just graduat guidelines, from Novice Low to Superior.1
ed from college and intended to start a Fulbright The main source of data for this article are the

research project after the program. Participants
ranged in age from 19 to 22 years. Most were
juniors in college. All but 5 students had started
their study of Chinese in college and had studied
the language for 2 to 3 years. All students had
recorded Chinese-speaking sessions that I had with
each student at four points during the semester,
roughly once a month. Importantly, the format of
these speaking events differed from the OPI,
otherwise a common data collection method for

fluency research (e.g., Freed, 1995; Freed et al.,

traveled outside the United States before their trip
to China. All were U.S. citizens or residents who
2004), in light of suggestions by Lennon (1990)
and Olynyk, d'Anglejan, and SankofF (1990) who
had grown up in the United States, except for one,
a citizen of New Zealand and native English surmised that a speech sample obtained through
speaker, who had lived in Hong Kong almost an his oral interview for a language assessment is
entire life. Each participant was paid $50 after
probably the learner's least fluent sample of the
completing the study. target language. Therefore, because I wanted to
The 5 students who started learning Chinese compare the students' most fluent moments
throughout the semester, I did not follow OPI
before college did not present as outliers in the

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Hang Du 135

interview protocol but simply had a friendly number of words is not a reliable unit for analysis.
conversation with the students. I started each Instead, the number of characters used to
transcribe an utterance is the logical unit to
session with a question about how they were doing.
Once they got started, I encouraged them to quantify
keep speech in this study.3
talking and to bring up anything that theyI divided each oral session into 2-minute

wished to talk about. Acting primarily segments

as an and counted the number of charac
interested and sympathetic listener, I asked
used to transcribe the student's speech dur
each segment. I chose the 2 minutes in which
questions for clarification or further information
highest number of morphemes (with each
and constantly gave both verbal and nonverbal
feedback. Since students told me that theypheme equal to 1 character in transcription)
spoken by the student for this reason: A b
appreciated the opportunity to talk to someone
sympathetic and independent of the programtoward best performance that compares the m
about their experience in China, includingproductive
the moment in each session offers
fairest
curriculum and the teachers, they tended to talk way to measure progress for each of
quite a bit. students.
Another concern about the OPI that influenced As expected, rates of speech varied across the
sessions: Students might talk faster when they told
my decision to use another form is that its internal
structure requires the interviewer to establisha the
simple story than they did when they attempted
to defend a position. It bears repeating that
interviewee's performance ceiling, at which point
language breaks down and the student's speech
different types of oral texts, such as narration
slows and shows dysfluency. On average, and
theargumentation, in the interviews were not
interview sessions I conducted were 20 to 25
initiated by the interviewer but by the students
minutes long; they were recorded with a themselves.
laptop Therefore, using the most productive
using Windows Media Player, and were later of each student's recording made it
2 minutes
transcribed with Chinese characters by anpossible
experito compare their best moment from each
enced native Chinese teacher. The entire tran of the 4 sessions across the semester.

scription was checked twice by the same teacher

for accuracy. The wording in the segments of
speech used for this article has been independent
Measures of Fluency
ly verified by another native speaker of Mandarin
Chinese. The two native speakers agreed on most
The study adopted the framework of measures
of fluency developed by Freed et al. (2004)
of the text in the transcriptions, with any disagree
ments resolved through discussion. mentioned earlier in the article. However, because
of certain limitations of current knowledge and
certain characteristics of the Chinese language,
Data Coding
only 3 of the 9 measures are a good fit. One is
related to fluidity of speech (Speech Rate); the
The number of Chinese characters used in the other two to general oral performance (Total
Words
written transcription of utterances was used to Spoken and Longest Turn)4 By contrast,
dysfluent
measure the fluency development in this study.2 In measures, such as Hesitation-Free
other languages, such as French, the number Speech
of Runs or Grammatical-Repair-Free Speech
words is used for the same purpose (e.g., Freed Runs, were not used for the following reasons.
et al., 2004). Ideally, for the purpose of compari First, based on previous research, Freed et al.
son, a similar measure should be used for Chinese (2004) used 400 milliseconds between words as
as well, but for several reasons it is more difficult
thetocutoff point for French dysfluent speech. In
define what a word is in Chinese than in some Chinese, the smallest unit of speech is the syllable/
other languages. The language does not have a
morpheme/character, rather than a word as it is in
rich morphology, each character has its French.
own Because no criterion has been established

through research for what would constitute

meaning, adjectives (called stative verbs) behave
dysfluency
like verbs in that they do not need a copula 'to be', in Chinese, it is not clear whether 400
and in writing, unlike in alphabetic languages milliseconds
such is a valid cutoff point for dysfluency in
Chinese. Second, Chinese does not have a rich
as English and French, there is no space between
morphology,
words in Chinese. Therefore, it is not always easy to an area in which intermediate and
advanced
tell whether a string of characters/morphemes is a learners of languages such as Spanish or
French still make mistakes (Collentine, 2004;
linguistic unit formed through a syntactic opera
tion or word formation process. Therefore,Isabelli-Garcfa,
the 2004); Chinese does not have

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 The Modern Language Journal 97 (2013)

many obligatory grammatical markers, such as violation of the language pledge, and the other
those that mark past tense, subject-verb agree that mainly spoke Chinese out of class, in
ment, or articles. Moreover, these students were observance of the language pledge. Therefore,
good at circumlocution. They could get their based on my observations, interactions with the
meanings across without the sophisticated syntac students, conversations with the teachers and
tic structures that native speakers would use in students, and the students' answers to the ques
similar situations.5 Finally, the last measure of tionnaires, I divided the students into two groups:
fluency in Freed et al.'s (2004) framework, a group of 14 who were strict about observing the
Duration of Speaking Time, would not provide language pledge and a group of 15 who spoke
useful information because most of the students
English outside of class whenever they could.6
talked for almost the full 2 minutes during each
interview. DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
To sum up, the following 3 measures were used
in this study for measuring fluency: To ensure that differences in fluency betwe
the observant and non-observant groups
Total Number of Characters. The number of students resulted from the study-abroad exp
characters used to represent the syllables/mor ence and did not exist at the start of program
phemes spoken by the student during the selected three independent-samples i-tests for the langu
2-minute segment in each recording. pledge were performed on the data from Time
Speech Rate. The total number of characters the first session. None of the pair-wise comparis
(morphemes/syllables) per minute spoken by the were statistically significant, indicating no
students after editing out interlocutor speech. tween-group differences in the 3 measures o
Speech rate was calculated in terms of charactersfluency existed at the beginning of the progr
per minute for each 2-minute segment. (see Table 1).
On that basis, a repeated measures multivari
Longest Turn. The longest turn in the 2-minute
analysis of variance (MANOVA) was perform
segment, with turns at 2-minute segment borders
with three dependent variables (Total Numbe
included in the count. For example, during a Speech Rate, and Longest Turn), each having f
segment that runs from the 6th to the 8th minute,
levels (Time 1 through Time 4), with Pledge as t
if the student started talking at the 7th minute and
between-subjects variable.
kept talking until the 9th minute, the turn was
For between-subjects effects, there is a mai
counted because it started during the 6th- to 8th
effect for Pledge (F = 4.27, p = .016). An ins
minute segment. (As a consequence, the longest tion of the mean scores reveals that across the 3
turn could be longer than 2 minutes.)
measures and the 4 time periods, the students who
observed the language pledge performed better
than those who did not.
Observance of the Language Pledge
The main effect for each dependent variable is
Starting from the first interview, students significant (for Total Number, F = 8.41, p = .000;
volunteered to tell me about their language use. for Speech Rate, F = 10.94, p = .000; for Longest
Some complained they could not socialize with Turn, F = 3.83, p = .034). This means the entire
certain students because they made different group of students performed differently on all 3
language choices outside of class. It became measures as time went on.

obvious that there were two groups of students, For Total Number of Characters, the values for
one that mainly spoke English out of class, in T2, T3, and T4 are all statistically significantly

TABLE 1

Comparison of Students Who Observed the Language Pledge and Those Who Did Not at Time 1

Pledge Number M SD t value Sig. (2-tailed)

Total Number Yes 14 338 35 1.797 .086
No 15 302 67
Speech Rate Yes 14 184 21 1.85 .075
No 15 167 27
Longest Turn Yes 14 183 71 .276 .785
No 15 174 104

Note. Sig. = significance.

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 137

FIGURE 1

Total Number of Characters

Time (Session)

reveals
higher than T1 (for T2 and Tl, p = .017; for T3that the difference between Time 2 and

Time
and Tl, p =.000; for T4 and Tl, p = .000). The3 is significant (F = 8.63, p=.007). As
Figure
other pair-wise comparisons are not significant. As 4 shows, the speech rate of the students who
Figure 1 shows, the overall trend from T2 toobserved
T3 to the language pledge went up from T2 to
T4 is still upward but perhaps less dramatic T3. By contrast, the speech rate of the student
than
the jump from Tl to T2. who did not observe the language pledge went
down
Similarly, Speech Rate was significantly higher at slightly during the same time period.
T2,T3, and T4 than at Tl (for T2 and Tl, p = .004;
forT3andTl,p = .000;forT4andTl,/>= .000). DISCUSSION
In addition, T4 was also significantly higher than
T2 (p = .049); however, T3 was not higher than Complementing the patterns revealed in
T2, and T4 was not higher than T3. This is quantitative analyses, the following qualitative
illustrated in Figure 2. further illuminate students' fluency profile
For Longest Turn, the results are similar to developments (note: all names are aliases).
those for Total Number of Characters. T2, T3, and
T4 are all higher than Tl (forT2 and Tl, p = .023;
Overall Fluency Development
forT3andTl,/> = ,025;forT4andTl,/> = .000).
The other pair-wise comparisons are not signifi The significant increase on all three measur
cant, as is shown in Figure 3. fluency from Tl to T4 shows that study abroa
As for the interaction between Pledge and Time, indeed improve students' fluency in Chines
one interaction, for Speech Rate, is significant least in the program examined here. Particu
(F — 3.89, p = .013). A pair-wise comparison noteworthy are the increases in students' flui

FIGURE 2

Speech Rate

Time (Session)

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 The Modem Language Journal 97(2013)
FIGURE 3

Longest Turn

♦ All Students

1 2 3 4

Time (Session)

of speech; that is, their speech rate and the countered created demanding and challenging
amount of speech they can produce during a communication needs that forced students to

2-minute segment. At the same time, that negotiate for meaning, with resulting impro
increased fluidity of speech enables them to ments in their general Chinese proficiency, and
hold the floor for longer stretches during one their development of fluency in particular. On
conversation turn. It is fair to assume that this is a they had become accustomed to the environmen
consequence of 16 hours of instruction a week, the a number of difficulties subsided, perh
substantial amount of daily homework, constant resulting in less dramatic progress from T2
assessment, and the fact that course participants T3, and from T3 to T4. At the same time, as
had little choice but to interact in Chinese with the indicated by the graphs, the overall trend con
local population when they went out. tinues to be upward, though in a less dramatic
Beyond that overall trend, more nuancedfashion.
changes can be observed. Thus, while one might Exploring more theoretical reasons for the
expect significant increases between each of thenature of fluency development in study-abroad
data points (from T1 to T2, to T3, to T4), only settings,
1 one might refer to Anderson's (1983)
occurrence of growth in terms of all 3 measures notion of the "proceduralization of linguistic
knowledge," which means that the acquired
was observed, that from T1 to T2, where all 3 focal
syntactic or lexical knowledge is converted into
fluency measures saw a dramatic increase. In other
fast online production. A similar explanation has
words, during the first month of study, a time when
been suggested by Raupach (1987) and Towell
students had the greatest problems adjusting to
et al. (1996). This was confirmed by students who
life in China and when quite a number of students
often reflected on their language development.
experienced episodes of cultural shock, students
One frequent remark was that they could speak
as a group made dramatic progress in their fluency
development. Perhaps the difficulties they enfaster in China because they practiced every day.

FIGURE 4

Speech Rate of Two Groups of Students

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 139
Hang Du

Another explanation was that they had moved On the other hand, participants who spoke
from thinking in English first, and then translating Chinese all the time spent considerably more
into Chinese, to thinking and forming sentences time with their roommates and other Chinese

directly in Chinese, a different approach to people. This is supported by Isabelli-Garcfa

language processing that obviously increased their
speech rate. They also expressed that speaking
Chinese daily helped them gain confidence in
their own abilities to express themselves in that
language.
Even students who chose to violate the langu
age pledge and speak English outside of class
made progress during their time in China. A
possible explanation for this improvement
(2004), who found that students who had extend
ed social networks involving the local people made
more progress in their oral proficiency in the
target language.
Socializing and speaking Chinese with Chinese
people could be categorized as time on task, the
actual amount of time that the students spend
speaking the target language. Such advantageous
time on task occurred as well when students who

might be needing to deal with Chinese people were strict about the language pledge spoke
when they traveled, took a taxi, went to bars Chinese with each other. In other words, NNS
or restaurants, or went shopping, in addition to interaction in the target language also helped
having class 16 hours every week. This will be students improve their target language fluency.
further illustrated in the next section. That interpretation is in line with the findings of
Freed et al. (2004) that domestic immersion
students made more progress in their fluency
Time on Task development than did study-abroad students. The
immersion students in that study not only spoke a
The statistically significant main effect for the lot of French with their teachers, but also with each
group observing the language pledge means that other outside of class. Similarly, both Martinsen
across the 3 measures and the 4 times, that group etal. (2010) and Martinsen et al. (2011) observed
performed significantly better than the nonobser that American students who lived in foreign
vant group. In addition, students in that group also language housing on the campus of an American
made more progress in Speech Rate from T2 to university were able to make much progress in the
T3.7 target language by sheer use of the language with
It is not clear how speaking one's native their peers. Even more intriguing is one of the
language hinders the development of fluency in findings from Martinsen et al. (2010) that the
a second language. A psycholinguistic explanation students with the most pronounced linguistic gain
might be to point out that speaking one language during study abroad reported spending more
takes away one's processing time and mental time speaking the target language with other
capacity for speaking the other language. Indeed, nonnative speakers while those who gained the
study participants related that their roommates least linguistically reported interacting more with
could tell if they had been speaking English right native speakers. The possible explanation offered
before conversing with them in Chinese, because by the authors was that the learners may have
their Chinese was slow, labored, and "sounded listened more than they talked in interactions with
bad." On the other hand, the roommates would native speakers but were better able to hold the
compliment them on their Chinese if they had floor when in interactions with other nonnative
been speaking Chinese right before talking to the speakers, whose proficiency in the L2 was similar to
roommates. their own. Further research is needed to shed

Taking a sociolinguistic perspective,

more speaking
light on this issue.
English may not in and of itself In hinder
general,the
students who observed the langua
development of the target language, pledge
but spent more time speaking Chinese wit
it takes
time and energy away from learning either their fellow students in the program
and speaking
the target language. Also, students Chinese people, while students who did no
who spoke
English out of class tended to spendobserve
a lot ofthetime
pledge tended to speak more Engli
with their fellow American students or with other and even avoided interactions with Chinese

English-speaking foreigners. By doing so, theypeople. A closer investigation of several individ

distanced themselves from local Chinese in social students' stories will illustrate the importanc
settings. Speaking English meant not socializing time on task.

with the vast majority of Chinese, who do not speak A number of students, among them Grace,
English, or roommates, who were requiredmainly to socialized with native Chinese speakers,
speak only Chinese with the American students. particularly their Chinese roommates and their

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140 The Modern Language Journal 97 (2013)

friends. When Grace and several students in the young American college students who can speak
program went hiking with their roommates, Chinese. her Emily reported talking to people she
fellow American students spoke English with each encountered in supermarkets because once they
other because they said they were tired. She chosefound out that she could speak Chinese, they
to walk with the Chinese students and so kept started asking her all sorts of questions. In short,
speaking Chinese. She spent most of her free time Emily took advantage of opportunities to speak
hanging out with the Chinese students. She was Chinese outside of class, even though she spoke
very happy in the program and did not wantEnglish to with her fellow American students quite
leave. Grace was moved to tears when, toward the often. On a trip to another city, she spoke English
end of the program, some of her Chinese friends with her friends, but because she had an outgoing
said that other American students could go home personality, she talked to people and bargained
but she should not go because she had become with vendors when she bought things. During
one of the "Chinese roommates." Upon hearing Session 3, right after a school break, she described
that, she felt that all her efforts had paid off; with
she considerable detail that she had gone surfing
had succeeded. Not surprisingly, all her measures at a popular vacation destination in southern
of fluency increased dramatically. China. She related having been in the middle of
Several students who did not speak Chinese the all ocean when a wave suddenly knocked her off
the time but spoke a lot of English with their her board; her hair fell loose, covering her face
American friends nevertheless made more prog and she could not see. During the storytelling,
ress than some students who were strict about the she was missing precise vocabulary, but she used
pledge. A case in point is the contrast betweencommunication strategies such as circumlocution
Charlie and Emily. Charlie spoke only Chinese,to get her meaning across skillfully and successful
even when he traveled alone; he insisted on ly. For example, lacking the Chinese word for
speaking Chinese with a waiter at a restaurant who'bruise' she informed me, "I still have blue spots on
spoke English. Charlie, however, was relatively my leg today," a phrasing whose meaning was quite
quiet and did not socialize much, either with clear given the context.
Chinese people or with his fellow AmericanCorroborating the results regarding Emily's
students, so he did not talk much outside class, growth in fluency, her computer reading test
even though he was on very good terms with his score also saw a noteworthy increase, from the pre
roommate and determined to abide by the terms program score of IM (Intermediate Mid) to AL
of the pledge. Charlie's speech rate increased (Advanced Low), jumping two levels. This shows
from T1 to T3 (Tl: 172; T2: 179; T3: 186), but that her fluency developed in step with improve
dropped to 169 characters per minute, even lower ments in her performance in reading and
than Tl, at T4. grammar.
By contrast, Emily spoke a lot of English with her In short, based on the learning profile exempli
classmates, especially when they went out to bars fied by Charlie and Emily, it is not only or even
and traveled, but she improved in every measure primarily pledge observance that affects fluency
across the board, with speech rate increases from development, but the Chinese-language interac
Tl (197.4 characters per minute) to T4 (222.8 tions that students had outside of class, with each
characters per minute). Not surprisingly, certain other or with native Chinese speakers. While some
personality characteristics facilitated her more students, like Emily, were able to improve their
frequent use of Chinese to interact with the local fluency even as they violated the pledge, other
people. For example, she loved to shop by herself nonobservant students did not fare so well. The

and explore unknown places alone. Early on in the key seems to be that students who created
program, she had familiarized herself with places opportunities for themselves to speak Chinese
in the city that were fun for her, especially improved more than their classmates who did
shopping destinations. Very soon she became a not. For example, while both Sophie and Peter
guide to her fellow students in the program, telling acknowledged speaking English with their class
them where to go and how to get there. She even mates outside of class, Sophie's Speech Rate, Total
escorted classmates to these places. She took both Number, and Longest Turn all increased from Tl
taxis and buses, both of which involved talking to to T4. On the other hand, Peter's scores dropped
people. In China, many taxi drivers like to talk to in two of the three measures, Total Number and
their passengers, especially young Americans who Speech Rate. Sophie's computer reading score
can speak Chinese. People like to talk to the went from IL (Intermediate Low) to IM (Interme
students on buses too, if they are not too crowded, diate Mid), up one level, while Peter's dropped
an expression of the fascination of Chinese with from AH (Advanced High) to IM (Intermediate

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Hang Du 141

Mid), dropping four levels, the largest drop among motivate everyone—especially those who are les
all students. likely to do so on their own—to take advantage o
The answer can be found in the stories they told. the study-abroad environment to improve the
Sophie did not mind going out on her own, and proficiency in the target language. Creatin
when she took taxis, she enjoyed chatting with the opportunities for internships with local educatio
drivers in Chinese. Once she lost her camera when al institutions or businesses would help achiev
she went out on her own, so she told her story these
to goals (Han, 2008; Isabelli-Garcia, 2004).
some Chinese people nearby. Later she confessed Assuming that administrators have, in some
being amazed that she was able to express her fashion, done this all along, it is then worth askin
why some students actually do spend more tim
frustration in Chinese, something that she became
aware of later on. On the other hand, Peter told on task than others. The answer might lie
me that he was not able to understand everything individual differences among students, such a
that people said when he travelled, so he just personality and motivation, and, perhaps mos
stopped trying to speak Chinese to strangers important, what Maclntyre and associates hav
altogether. He said he did not want to "bother" called willingness to communicate (Maclntyre et a
them and so he left them alone, depriving himself 1998, 2003). Among reasons students choose t
of the opportunity to engage in negotiations of speak English instead of the L2 even though th
meaning with native speakers. While the pledge decision to study abroad would seem to indicat
was an important factor in whether students their interest in learning the language might
improved their fluency or not, it is not strict be the need to maintain a sense of security or
observance in and of itself, but an internalization preserve their own cultural identity (e.g., Wilk
of its tenets that affects learning: Students who son, 1998). Another possibility is that that they a
interacted with native speakers in a variety of able to present their ideal self only through th
contexts, who created social networks for them native language, something that is not possible du
selves with Chinese speakers, and who went out to limited proficiency in the second language (e.g
into the culture and spoke Chinese improved their Pellegrino Aveni, 2005). Such identity and anxiet
language whether or not they followed the pledge issues could affect students' willingness to co
to the letter. municate (e.g., Maclntyre et al., 1998, 2003). Al
these deserve further research in the study-i
China context.
CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND
DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH The limitations of the study are obvious, not
least because this is the first attempt to establish
measures of fluency for Chinese based on the
This research offered data from a study-abroad
framework demonstrated in Freed et al. (2004). In
program in China to show that the study-abroad
the end,
experience can enhance students' development of only three measures of fluency could
fluency; in particular, it can improve their
bespeech
applied, in part because research does not as yet
rate, volume of speech during a set period have of
a well-established criterion of hesitation

time, and the ability to hold the floor during a

indicators for Chinese that would make it po
conversation. Additionally, students who tospoke
calculate fillers, hesitations, and other fea
Chinese outside of class more consistently ofmade
dysfluent speech as additional marke
more progress in speech rate than those who fluency
did in Chinese. Other measures, su
not. semantic density, should also be established
A language pledge seems to be a useful tool
wayto to assess fluency in Chinese (Collentine,
Fillmore,
encourage or sometimes even force the students to 1979).
In any event, fluency is only one indicato
make the greatest possible use of the L2. However,
it may ultimately be time on task—the amount general
of proficiency in a second language o
time that the students spend using the targetlanguage development in a study-abroad set
language with each other and with native speakers
For example, this study did not address whethe
—that makes the difference in their fluency what contexts, and at what rate, accuracy, es
development, something that reflects students'
ly grammatical accuracy, can be developed
inner commitment to the intent of the pledge study-abroad program in China. Beyond th
rather than merely to its letter. In light ofconsiderations,
these the scale of the study imp
findings, administrators of study-abroad programs
limitations on the generalizability of its result
should focus on creating more opportunitiesinvites
for additional research involving a la
students to interact with local people and should
number of students in a variety of study-a
find more effective ways to encourage and
programs.

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 The Modern Language Journal 97 (2013)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS researchers posit that the acquisition of individual

items and their idiosyncrasies is the foundation fo
acquisition of grammar (Cook, 1997, cited in Collen
I would like to thank the program administrators
2004). who
6 It is
facilitated my research, the participating students, true that even the strictest observers o
and
Gordon Jackson for his statistical advice. language pledge spoke some English out of clas
example, a student reported speaking English wi
friends on a trip when they did not feel safe. Studen
different social networks and participated in dif
NOTES activities and some tensions arose between the two

groups caused by their different language choices.

7 It would be interesting to investigate whether fluidit
1 The OPI has been widely used to assess language
measures such as Speech Rate and general performan
development in the study-abroad context (e.g., Liskin
measures such as Total Number and Longest Tur
Gasparro & Urdaneta, 1995). In the fall of 2006, I
are theoretically similar or different constructs. They a
conducted a pilot study with 5 students from the same
treated as equal measures of fluency in this stud
institution that runs the program in question. I arranged
because, according to Freed et al. (2004), Speech Ra
to have an official OPI given to them twice, once before
significandy correlates with all the other eight measure
they went to China and once after they returned to the
including Total Number and Longest Turn. I am gratef
United States. I found all 5 students had achieved
to an anonymous reviewer for pointing this out.
advanced-level proficiency before they left for China and
were ranked in this same range when they took the test
again after coming back to the United States. As the
literature suggests, the OPI cannot easily make distinc
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