The Effects Of Different Backchannels On Fluency In Chinese College English Learners' Oral Task Production

How oral fluency is affected has aroused great interests of SLA researchers at home and abroad, but the possible effects from listener's verbal or nonverbal responses, or backchannels on speaker's fluency, are rarely investigated. The present paper aims to place fluency research into interactive oral task and investigates the effects of listener's backchannel responses on the fluency of Chinese college English Learners'oral task production. The study is undertaken empirically in both the quantitative and the qualitative research methods.The subjects were 20 homogenous EFL learners from Lanzhou University, each of whom was asked to perform three oral narrative tasks continuously in three counterbalance-arranged backchannel conditions:(1) verbal/nonverbal backchannels (V/NV), (2) nonverbal-only backchannels (NV), and (3) no backchannels (NB). Verbal backchannel responses included "mm-hm", "uh-huh" and "yes" while nonverbal backchannel involved nodding, smile and eye gazing. A questionnaire was filled out by each subject after three tasks. Defined as a temporal phenomenon, the oral fluency was transcribed and measured via three indicators:rate A, rate B and mean length of run. The data were statistically analyzed by SPSS 11.5 package and the results showed that: the 20 Chinese subjects in the V/NV condition or NV condition were more fluent than in the NB condition. However, no significant differences were found between V/NV condition and NV condition. The qualitative results on the 20 subjects'questionnaires partly verified the above results and also revealed that all the subjects sensed the improved fluency caused by backchannels.Then, the research results were elaborately discussed and explained on the basis of the related theories:Appraisal Psychology, backchannel output hypothesis, etc. It is concluded that the listener's backchannels do facilitate the Chinese college EFL learner's fluency and the Chinese react similarly when given verbal/nonverbal backchannels and nonverbal-only backchannels. The present research theoretically broadens the scope on both fluency and backchannel studies and provides valuable data and methods for empirical studies on backchannels at home. Furthermore, backchanneling, as a noteworthy interactive strategy, calls for more attention in both teaching and applications. How oral fluency is affected has aroused great interests of SLA researchers at home and abroad, but the possible effects from listener's verbal or nonverbal responses, or backchannels on speaker's fluency, are rarely investigated. The present paper aims to place fluency research into interactive oral task and investigates the effects of listener's backchannel responses on the fluency of Chinese college English Learners'oral task production. The study is undertaken empirically in both the quantitative and the qualitative research methods.The subjects were 20 homogenous EFL learners from Lanzhou University, each of whom was asked to perform three oral narrative tasks continuously in three counterbalance-arranged backchannel conditions:(1) verbal/nonverbal backchannels (V/NV), (2) nonverbal-only backchannels (NV), and (3) no backchannels (NB). Verbal backchannel responses included "mm-hm", "uh-huh" and "yes" while nonverbal backchannel involved nodding, smile and eye gazing. A questionnaire was filled out by each subject after three tasks. Defined as a temporal phenomenon, the oral fluency was transcribed and measured via three indicators:rate A, rate B and mean length of run. The data were statistically analyzed by SPSS 11.5 package and the results showed that: the 20 Chinese subjects in the V/NV condition or NV condition were more fluent than in the NB condition. However, no significant differences were found between V/NV condition and NV condition. The qualitative results on the 20 subjects'questionnaires partly verified the above results and also revealed that all the subjects sensed the improved fluency caused by backchannels.Then, the research results were elaborately discussed and explained on the basis of the related theories:Appraisal Psychology, backchannel output hypothesis, etc. It is concluded that the listener's backchannels do facilitate the Chinese college EFL learner's fluency and the Chinese react similarly when given verbal/nonverbal backchannels and nonverbal-only backchannels. The present research theoretically broadens the scope on both fluency and backchannel studies and provides valuable data and methods for empirical studies on backchannels at home. Furthermore, backchanneling, as a noteworthy interactive strategy, calls for more attention in both teaching and applications.