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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Studies
Vol. 5:2 (2022) ► pp.344–363

Talking about oneself

Effects of personalized prompts on L2 learners’ speech

ORCID logo | Fuji Women’s University , Japan
ORCID logo | Hokkaido Bunkyo University , Japan

Second language instructors often have students talk about their own experiences rather than abstract impersonal topics. Intuitively, such topics seem more likely to encourage student engagement. Unfortunately, virtually no empirical research has examined the effects of personal prompts on spoken output. To address this gap in research, the current study (N = 117) compares the spoken output of Japanese university English students who responded to a personal prompt with students responding to an impersonal prompt. Output was recorded in transcripts and then analyzed using a battery of measures related to complexity, accuracy, and fluency. Findings showed that personalized prompts were associated with greater fluency. Moreover, there was some evidence that impersonal prompts led to output with greater lexical complexity. Rates of accuracy were similar in both groups. Correlational analysis suggested that lexical sophistication was associated with reduced fluency. The conclusion addresses practical implications and avenues for further research.

Keywords: speaking, prompts, self-reference, fluency, accuracy, complexity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Literature review
    • 1.2Research questions and hypotheses
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Procedure
    • 2.3Analysis
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Complexity
    • 3.2Accuracy
    • 3.3Fluency
    • 3.4Relationships between measures
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 31 December 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jsls.21023.mue
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