Influences of Early English Language Teaching on Oral Fluency and Second Language Pronunciation Proficiency Development in a Classroom Setting

This critical review discusses the influences of early English language teaching on oral fluency and second language pronunciation proficiency development in a classroom setting. The review analyzes two research articles and provides insights on the acquisition of the second language, age, fluency, and the environment of learning. The review also suggests ways to improve the fluency and pronunciation skills of foreign learners.

Running head: CRITICAL REVIEW 1
ACQUISITION OF THE SECOND LANGUAGE
Student (name)
Professor (name)
College
Course
Date

CRITICAL REVIEW 2
FIRST REVIEW
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on
oral fluency. Elt Journal, 71(3), 341-353.
The De Wolf et al. (2017) article is about the influences of previous English teaching on
being orally fluent. The authors of the report wrote research to find out whether the age affects
the acquisition of L2 and oral fluency. The study also examined the advantages of fluency that
were observed from kids who were exposed to the English language early and compared the
merits to those kids who were exposed to the English language late. The article also focused on
the effect of fluency in young scholars after they left school.
De Wolf, Smit & Lowie (2017), explains how the oral fluency is a key to the learners in
English teaching. The study involves the Dutch Elementary schools. The participants for the
research were between four and five years old in the first grade while the new learners were
chosen between the ages of ten and twelve. The choice of this group of participants was very
essential for the entire research because they shared the common characteristics.Out of the
choice the primary objective of the research was achieved (Ellis, 2008). The researchers had to
consider some factors to ensure genuine results. These factors were: Language and enunciation
rate, mean pause duration in speaking time, average syllable duration in seconds, and the number
of pause per minute and the phonation time ratio. The above factors were crucial in boosting the
oral fluency. The researchers wanted to check out how the following has connection with the
verbal fluency.Some of the factors include the following: the acquisition of L2, age, and how
the advantages of early exposure to fluency differed from the late exposure in verbal fluency and
determine whether learning out of class was beneficial too (Myles & Mitchell 2014). Early
learning of the English language motivates oral fluency.

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The researchers explain the findings of the study in the following ways:
 The age plays a vital role in determining the fluency of the language of the kids.
The receptive skills also have a significant influence on the development of the
powers that alters oral fluency.
 The learners’ exposure outside a classroom setting affected fluency in the English
language in a significant way.
 The development of the fluency in speaking was also affected by the
environmental setting.
 The implications of the research focused on the age and the grade of the pupils.
The results showed that the learners in the early grade have better writing and reading
skills as compared to the learners in their late grade since they were able to learn new words and
grammar faster . Research by many scientists has proven that young kids can master a new
language more swiftly than the older kids. However, the learners in the late grade have better
listening and reading skills as compared to the early learners because the former had a stronger
cognitive ability as compared to the later. For this reason, some researchers support the view that
the receptive skills also affects the oral fluency (Ellis, 2008). The results showed the reasons why
the receptive skills influence the productive powers, and this improves the verbal fluency of the
learners. However, not all receptive skills affects the learners' verbal fluency. Some researchers
argued that learning outside the regular curriculum positively affects the verbal fluency (Gu &
Benson, 2015). Other researchers argued that the frequent contact with TV programs and some
books and novels added new vocabularies to the learners thus improving their English language.

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The environment of learning and availabilities of learning materials influence the acquisition of
the second language as per several studies. Age also determines the ability of a learner to acquire
the second language. Young learners master the second language faster than the older learners.
However, in some situations, the young kids face some difficulties in learning the first language
and hence slowing down their fluency in the language.
The findings of the research were very crucial to a Pakistan student. This is because may
help him/her design a curriculum that can assist in mastering the second language. The student
can use the results of the findings to boost his/her writing, reading, listening, speaking, and
fluency skills even though he/she did not learn the English language at a younger age (Ellis,
2008). The Pakistan student should improve his/her cognitive skills to further enhance his/her
reading and listening abilities; this will, in turn, improve the student's vocabularies and hence
improve his/her fluency in the English language. The student can accomplish this by learning
outside the class and learning new vocabularies from books and novels as well as listening to
good English programs on the television. The students are also encouraged to do Mobile
Assisted Language learning as another new learning out of class. The MALL method is simple
because the mobile phones are portable and so the students can learn at any time of the day when
they are free.
SECOND REVIEW
Kazuya, S., Yui, S., & Hui, S. (2018). Aptitude, experience, and second language
pronunciation proficiency development in a classroom setting. Studies in second language
acquisition, 1-25.

CRITICAL REVIEW 5
Pronunciation of the words of any language is vital in the communication. A wrong
pronunciation could display a wrong meaning in some cases and the person communicating may
fail to express himself/herself effectively. Saito et al. (2018) researched for a whole year to
determine the influences of knack, experience, and the development of the pronunciation of the
second language. The primary goal of the study was to determine the purpose of giving right
doctrines about correct pronunciation and speaking skills (Dörnyei, 2014). The researchers
proved that the second language's acquisition was more straightforward for learners who had a
higher aptitude.
The authors collected speeches from different participants at different times of the day
and compared their aptitude and experience. The findings showed that the students with more
experience and higher talent than others were more competent in their speeches that the students
with lower skills and aptitude (Ellis, 2008). As a result, the study showed that ability contributed
significantly to the competency in the second language because of the long and intense learning
periods for the students. The older learners with a high aptitude for the acquisition of the second
language would improve significantly if their supervisors motivate them.
The study explores more on the topic of pronunciation and gives better learning materials
which boost the learners' understanding and cognitive. Different scholars have also proved that
motivation improves learning which in turn influences the teaching of the second language. The
scholars also gave several proofs that culture and tribe changed the pronunciation. The
researchers chose students of different cultural, social, historical, and religious backgrounds
(Grimm, Solari & Gerber, 2018). The findings of the research were explicit that some students
shied away from speaking in front of others for fear of being laughed at by their peers. To
encourage these pupils to boost their confidence, it was important to motivate them hence

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improving their pronunciation skills in the long run (Houston, 2016). The learners were
appreciated for any improvement in their pronunciation skills, and this was a great sign of
motivation. The motivation skills became a fundamental aspect of assisting the learning of the
English language (Hadzi Horga & Bulc 2012). From different interviews and questionnaires, the
findings of the research showed that the learners enjoyed motivation in their knowledge of the
L2. The learners improved their pronunciation and fluency in English in spite of their
backgrounds. The results of the study articulated that age was not a factor that could affect the
acquisition of the second language. In most cases, the high aptitude of the learners, right
motivation, and experience have significantly improved their fluency of the second language
(Saito et al. 2018). These factors have significantly contributed to the progress of the learners
and have made learners more competent in their second language acquisition as compared to
when these factors are not put in place.
The authors applied the Defense Language Proficiency Test in their study and discovered
that students whose performance in reading and listening mastered every word and understood
its meaning and this attributed to the high memory capacity in the learners. The aptitude of the
foreign language is a vital factor in determining the learner's ability to learn a language in a
conducive environment and the desired style of learning (Saito et al. 2018). The researchers
resolved that the one year period was not enough to articulate the learners’ pronunciation skills
but could improve their proficiency in speech. Researchers have proven that the initial exposure
of the learners to the first language influenced the accents while they are communicating the
second language (Sandlund et al. 2016).
To improve the fluency of the learners in their speech, the research started some sound
sequencing techniques which aimed at improving the articulation and ensuring that it's clear. The

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learners practiced on a daily basis and set goals to improve the fluency of their speeches. The
participants who were more appropriate in their sound sequences were more likely to develop
their proficiency in pronunciation than their peers who had a lesser aptitude in their sound
sequences.
The study also recognized that learning outside the class was limited by the learners’
diverse learning styles (Borg, 2015). Learners have various learning aptitudes and learning
styles. Some students learn better outside the class while others learn better in the class.
According to Harmer (2015, p.86), the aptitude tests shown the capacity of a person, but these
capacities may vary under different situations. The study showed that some of the circumstances
under which the second language learner may learn the language even if their aptitudes is
through through the motivation and self-will. When the student has a good learning desire,
he/she will put effort and will become very fluent and competent in it.
The study is vital for the foreign learners because it showed the importance of proper
pronunciation of the English words. The findings indicate that these foreign scholars can
improve their pronunciation skills and fluency if only they are determined enough even if they
don't have very high aptitudes. It is also crucial for each learner to understand his/her learning
techniques to improve their competency in their language.
The research was not as useful as it should have been. If the researchers placed the
participants in a different environment at different times, the results would have been more
effective. Even then, the results showed that students who have better experience and aptitude
were more competent in their fluency and pronunciation than others.

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REFERENCES
Borg, S. (2015). Language teacher cognition bibliography. Teaching and Teacher Education,
27(1), 29-36.
Cook, V. (2016). Second language learning and language teaching. Routledge.
de Wolf, S., Smit, N., & Lowie, W. (2017). Influences of early English language teaching on oral
fluency. Elt Journal, 71(3), 341-353.
Dörnyei, Z. (2014). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second
language acquisition. Routledge.
Ellis, R. (2008). The study of language acquisition (second edition). Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Grimm, R. P., Solari, E. J., & Gerber, M. M. (2018). A longitudinal investigation of reading
development from kindergarten to grade eight in a Spanish-speaking bilingual
population. Reading and Writing, 31(3), 559-581.
Gu, M., & Benson, P. (2015). The formation of English teacher identities: A cross-cultural
investigation. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 187-206.
Hadži, V. P., Horga, D., & Bulc, T. B. (2012). Speech fluency: a result of oral language
proficiency?. Linguistica, 52(1), 87.
Harmer, J. (2015). English Language Teaching. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
Houston, S. M. (2016). A longitudinal study of the development of fluency of novice Japanese
learners: Analysis using objective measures.
Myles, F., & Mitchell, R. (2014). Second language learning theories. Routledge.

CRITICAL REVIEW 9
Saito, K., Suzukida, Y., & Sun, H. (2018). Aptitude, experience and second language
pronunciation proficiency development in classroom settings: a longitudinal study.
Studies in Second Language Acquisition.
Sandlund, E., Sundqvist, P., & Nyroos, L. (2016). Testing L2 Talk: A Review of Empirical
Studies on Second‐Language Oral Proficiency Testing. Language and Linguistics
Compass, 10(1), 14-29.