Length of Residence and Chinese ESL Students' English Speaking Comprehensibility and Intelligibility.

This study investigates the correlation between length of residence and learners' comprehensibility and intelligibility (namely "English speaking competence" throughout the paper) in a study abroad context. The investigator also examined the role of essential daily routines as a moderator of these correlations. Ten Chinese students who are currently studying at Northern Arizona University (NAU) were invited to participate in the research. They had different lengths of residence in the United States ranging from one year to five years. Based on Lu's (2014) study on the same group of students, the length of residence in English immersive environment should be positively correlated to comprehensibility and intelligibility and only slightly correlated to accentedness. The investigator of this study collected the amount of time each spends on nine critical daily life activities in a regular semester. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated to demonstrate the relationship between English speaking competence and the time devoted to each of the nine activities. Follow-up interviews were conducted to each participant to qualitatively reinforce and verify the statistical results. The principal investigator (PI) of the study provides a recommended time planning to engage specific activities in an English-as-second-language (ESL) context improve Chinese ESL students' English speaking in terms of comprehensibility and intelligibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]