Learners: Activity 3
Compare accuracy, fluency and complexity
Look at comparable 1-minute segments of the interview from each learner (e.g. why they are studying the language). Compare the learners’ language in terms of its: fluency and intelligibility, accuracy, and complexity in those segments. Relate these to their personality and background, if possible.
Sebastian Interview :
Maximus Interview :Please type your answers to the questions in the box below.
When you have finished typing your answer, click to compare your response with the Learner Language staff response.
Fluency and Intelligibility: Maximus’ and Sebastian’s Japanese is fluent. Their speed is not too slow nor are there many pauses in their speech (although Maximus pauses more often than Sebastian). Both effectively use fillers; Maximus uses different variations of “nanka” and Sebastian uses “ano.”
Their foreign accents are not too strong and Japanese native speakers would probably understand them easily. However, Sebastian seems to have more English accent than Maximus (e.g., “supeingo [Spain language=Spanish]”).
Accuracy: In this part of the interviews, Maximus sounds more grammatically accurate than Sebastian. Sebastian’s errors are mainly found in verbs. Although he conjugates each verb perfectly, he inaccurately chooses tense and/or modality. That is, he may be grammatically accurate but not particularly coherent.
Complexity: Both combine simple, compound, and complex sentences.
Both Sebastian and Maximus have lived in Japan with a host family. Their overall fluency and intelligibility may have been due to their study abroad experiences. Maximus, who lived in Japan longer and at a younger age than Sebastian, sounds more fluent and less accented than Sebastian. In addition, their production sounds relatively accurate. Particularly, Sebastian’s accuracy in morphology but incoherence in speech implies that their class may emphasize accuracy on sentence-level forms much more than discourse competence.
