Effects of the 4/3/2 activity revisited: Extending Boers (2014) and Thai & Boers (2016)

Whereas scholars have extensively researched the pedagogical potential of 4/3/2 activities (i.e. increasing time pressure in task repetition) for enhancing second language (L2) fluency, its impact on L2 accuracy remains unclear. To help L2 learners improve both fluency and accuracy, the present study examined the effects of adding accuracy enhancement (AE) as a form of delayed metalinguistic correction to the 4/3/2 activity on the development of L2 fluency (speed, breakdown, repair) and accuracy (the acquisition of irregular and regular forms of English past tense). A total of 36 university-level students participated in three 20-minute dyadic sessions. They were randomly divided into three groups: Control, 4/3/2 and 4/3/2+AE. Whereas the 4/3/2 group repeated a monologue task three times with increasing time pressure (4 → 3 → 2 minutes), those in the 4/3/2+AE received metalinguistic correction from the researcher during the 4/3/2 activity. According to the results, a combined approach, 4/3/2+AE, simultaneously impacted learners’ overall fluency and accuracy across different topics. However, certain aspects of their fluency and accuracy development, especially those related to linguistic encoding (reduction in pauses within clauses; regular past tense forms), remained unchanged.