Do Participant-selected Topics Influence L2 Writing Fluency? A Replication Study(岩津洋二教授追悼号)

The concept of fluency now forms a key point in some pedagogical approaches (Willis & Willis, 1996; Nation, 2009). Some commentators have suggested that fluency is more often defined in terms of speaking than writing (e.g. Brown, 2003), thus implying a need for further research in written fluency. Specifically, topic selection and how it might relate to written fluency is an area of developing research and provided the basis for this study. We replicate the procedure used by Bonzo (2008) to investigate whether participant or teacher-generated topics affect fluency performance on free-writing tasks, utilizing 84 learners in general English classes at a Japanese university. Statistical analyses (as operationalized using a fluency index from Bonzo) indicated that participant-selected topics produced a significantly greater degree of written fluency than teacher-selected topics. Other data, drawn from focus group interviews and a post-procedure survey, added an extra dimension to the findings in that a distinction may lie between measurable fluency and the fluency perceived on the part of the learner. Participants selected a number of factors they believed affected their fluency, some of which may be at odds with the findings of the statistical analyses. In light of this, pedagogical implications are discussed so that practical classroom applications can be made