5 décembre 2017 à 11h30

Crosslinguistic study of pauses in speech: L1 influence and L2 perception

The influence of first language (L1) speech patterns on second language (L2) speech production is well-known in studies of, for example, syntax, semantics, and phonology/phonetics. Much less studied is the influence of temporal features such as pausing patterns; for example, speakers’ use of silent pauses and filled pauses (e.g., ‘uh’/’um’ in English). But recent work is showing that L1 pause patterns influence L2 speech in ways that is not universal. That is, the pausing patterns exhibited by L2 speakers vary somewhat according to the L1-L2 pairing. This talk presents evidence in support of this claim from both a crosslinguistic speech corpus as well as a perceptual experiment done with different L1 speakers. The talk will wrap up with ideas for raising L2 learners’ awareness of their pausing patterns.