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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume 16. Number 4, December 2025 Pp.224-238
This study investigates interactions between AI chatbots and EFL learners and their effect on spoken fluency and communicative competence, focusing on micro-level features of discourse such as turn-taking management, discourse-marker use, hesitation phenomena, and repair mechanisms. Thirty-first- and second-year undergraduates (CEFR B1–B2) at Odesa I. I. Mechnikov National University completed two counterbalanced 20-minute speaking sessions: a voice-based chatbot conversation and a matched human–human peer task. Audio data were transcribed and annotated for turn-entry timing, discourse markers, hesitation, and repair sequences. Fluency indices included speech rate, articulation rate, mean length of run, pause profiles, and repair density. The findings indicate that chatbot interaction yielded modest but reliable improvements in speech rate and mean length of run, alongside a reduction in very long pauses, while articulation rate remained essentially unchanged. Self-repair density increased, with most repairs being self-initiated and quickly resolved, often triggered by lexical access challenges or automatic-speech-recognition misrecognitions; these sequences supported conversational progressivity rather than disrupting flow. Gains were most evident in information-gap and problem-solving tasks, whereas opinion-exchange tasks showed weaker effects due to limited backchanneling and occasional system latency. Learners perceived chatbot practice as useful, less anxiety-provoking than peer interaction, and supportive of willingness to communicate, while noting limitations in discourse naturalness and prosodic feedback. The significance of the study lies in linking interactional micro-features to fluency outcomes, offering empirical evidence for AI-mediated speaking practice design. Pedagogically, results support blended implementation: chatbots for warm-up, rehearsal, and decision-focused tasks, complemented by human interaction to develop pragmatic nuance and prosody.
Matiienko-Silnytska, A., Mikava, N., Savranchuk, I., Tkhor, N,, & Poliakova, H. (2025). Conversational Analysis of Learner – AI Chatbot Interactions in Developing Spoken Fluency. Arab World English Journal, 16(4): 224-238
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Anna Matiienko-Silnytska,candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Phonetics of the English language, Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. Her research interests are Language Teaching and Learning, English dialectology, Sociolinguistics.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5097-0302
Nana Mikava, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Foreign Languages for Specific Purposes, Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. Her research interests are Language Teaching and Learning, English for Specific Purposes, and Phonetics. E-mail: mikava.nani84@gmail.com ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8526-7676
Iryna Savranchuk, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Lexicology and stylistics of the English language, Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. Her research interests are Language Teaching and Learning, English for Specific Purposes, Phonetics, Lexicology. E-mail: irinapopik77@gmail.com ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6191-2298
Neonila Tkhor, candidate of philological sciences, associate professor, associate professor of the Department of Lexicology and stylistics of the English language, Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Odesa I.I. Mechnikov National University. Her research interests are Language Teaching and Learning, English for Specific Purposes, Phonetics, Stylistics.
E-mail: neonilatkhor@ukr.net ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4306-4242
Hanna Poliakova, candidate of pedagogical science, assistant professor, Odesа National Maritime University, Department of Philology, Odesa, Ukraine. Scientific interests include: methodics of teaching foreign languages, written translation and interpretation. Emai: priem@onmu.odessa.ua ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6734-501X