Long-term effects of intensive instruction on fluency, comprehensibility and accentedness

Abstract We assessed the long-term effects of intensive instruction on different aspects of L2 oral production. Adopting the tridimensional model of oral production ( Munro & Derwing, 1995a ), we compared high school learners who had received intensive ESL instruction (N = 42) with non-intensive learners (N = 39) on perceptual measures of L2 fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness 4 years after a 5-month intensive instruction period. After controlling for academic ability and L2 proficiency, listeners’ ratings of fluency and comprehensibility were significantly higher for the IG; however, there was no specific group advantage for accentedness, suggesting both groups exhibited similar L2 accents. This study provides new empirical evidence that the oral fluency and comprehensibility benefits of an intensive experience may be long lasting, even when learners’ subsequent classroom exposure to the language is much more limited.