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Articles

Vol. 28 No. 3 (2025): Second language pronunciation: Current issues and developments

Immersion and oral language development in a time of social disruption

DOI
https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2025.35871
Submitted
December 8, 2025
Published
2025-12-15

Abstract

This study investigated how international graduate students’ comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency developed over 18 months of immersion in English, a time period interrupted by the social isolation of the COVID pandemic. A mixed-methods longitudinal design was adopted with four data collection points over 18 months (pre-COVID: Months 1, 3, and 6; post-COVID: Month 18). Twenty-two L2 speakers of various L1 backgrounds completed a picture-description task and a semi-structured interview at time points 1-3 (pre-COVID), with 12 of those speakers providing information at time point 4 (post-COVID). Twenty native English listeners rated their speech samples for comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency. Results revealed that comprehensibility and fluency showed modest improvement, while accentedness did not change. Subsequent analyses of individual trajectories at time point 4 revealed considerable variability, with some speakers continuing to show improvement while progress for others plateaued or even deteriorated. Speakers who reported more opportunities for personal communication and more interactive professional responsibilities continued to improve.

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