Proficient speakers : A literature review on what it means to be orally proficient as a speaker of English

Abstract: An increasing amount of people use the English language, even those with other first languages. Therefore, there is an interest in investigating various aspects of the English language. The present study aims to investigate what it means to be orally proficient as a speaker of English. More specifically, the aim is to investigate how various degrees of fluency can affect listeners’ assessments of non-native speakers’ oral proficiency. The data for the study was retrieved through a literature review where various scholarly articles, one handbook on public speaking, and a coursebook in linguistics have been used. The present study used content analysis as its method when reviewing the data. The results of the study show that fluency is a concept that is recurring when identifying what it means to be orally proficient. The results furthermore show that the degree of fluency plays an extensive role in listeners’ assessments of non-native speakers’ oral proficiency. However, various factors could affect a speaker’s degree of fluency, such as convergence, divergence, and anxiety. Although all speakers are not as fluent due to various aspects, fluency is nevertheless seen as one of the most important aspects to be regarded as a proficient speaker. What the present study concludes is that fluent speech is of great importance to strive toward to be regarded as a proficient speaker of English.