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Article In:
Language, Interaction and Acquisition
Vol. 15:2 (2024) ► pp.215–241

The development of CAF in the oral production of French L1 young learners of EFL

A longitudinal study

ORCID logo | University of Lleida | University of Paris-Nanterre
 | University of Paris-Nanterre
Complexity, accuracy and fluency (CAF) have become established measures of L2 production, being used extensively to gauge learning outcomes in teenage and adult learners. Nonetheless, very few studies have looked into their longitudinal development and even less so with young learners. The present study seeks to explore the development of CAF in the oral production of eight L1 French young learners of EFL enrolled in a secondary school in a suburb of Paris (France) over a two-year span. Oral production was elicited by means of a picture narrative at regular intervals every 3-4 months. The findings indicate that CAF build on each other in the early stages of EFL and children are capable of parallel processing in L2 production, attending to all three dimensions simultaneously. Task repetition and characteristics seem to mitigate trade-offs among CAF.
Keywords: young learners, CAF, EFL, oral production
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Development of YLs’ speaking skills in EFL: Evidence from European instructed settings
    • 2.2Development of CAF in L2 English: Longitudinal trajectories and trade-offs
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2The Task
    • 3.3Data Collection
    • 3.4CAF measures
      • 3.4.1Complexity
      • 3.4.2Accuracy
      • 3.4.3Fluency
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • Author queries
  • References
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