Heather Woodward, our publications co-chair, will present on a speaking assessment app she co-developed. If you’re interested, please join us via Zoom! You can find Zoom and Presentation details below:

Zoom Details
https://temple.zoom.us/j/4906825537?pwd=NXh1Z3RFTncrbXdhajBad3RyanFrdz09
Meeting ID: 490 682 5537
Passcode: 690053

Presentation Details
“Assessing second language (L2) spoken fluency remains a challenge for instructors, despite its importance in language learning and proficiency (Brown, 2006; Fulcher, 2003; Kang et al., 2019). Spoken fluency, defined as the “smoothness and effortlessness of speech” (Chambers, 1997), is a key indicator of L2 proficiency and a central focus in L2 spoken assessments (Ogawa, 2022; Peltonen, 2024). To address this, we developed a mobile app to track and enhance spoken fluency, grounded in speech production theories (Levelt, 1993) and skill development (DeKeyser, 2007). This presentation reviews research on spoken fluency development, explores assessment methods, and presents findings from our study on the app’s syllable-counting ability. The study involved 84 first-year undergraduate students from a private university in Tokyo, Japan. Participants recorded one-minute monologues, and data was analyzed using Bland-Altman analysis to determine which speech-to-text method—pitch analysis, Apple’s speech-to-text, or WhisperX’s speech-to-text—best matched human syllable counts. WhisperX outperformed both pitch analysis and Apple’s in-house speech-to-text offering superior performance in analyzing speech rate. In the second half of the workshop, participants will be able to use the app.”