ABSTRACT
This chapter explains L2 speech production fluency in the light of models of automatization. It discusses how fluency can be defined and measured, how it can be related to theories of automatization and learning, and what the results of empirical studies reveal about the perceptions and development of fluency. Strength theories of automatization also have relevance for the development of fluency and the automaticity of lexical encoding in L2 production. Phonation-time ratio, that is, the percentage of time spent speaking as a percentage proportion of the time taken to produce the speech sample, was also found to be a good predictor of fluency. In reviewing various definitions of fluency, the chapter pointed out that the term fluency is generally used in two senses: meaning global oral proficiency and the ability to produce talk smoothly within the time constraints of real-life communication.
