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Measuring Fluency: Temporal Variables And Pausing Patterns In L2 English Speech, Soohwan Park

Open Access Dissertations

This paper examines temporal variables and pausing patterns in L2 English speech to investigate fluency as a measurable component of oral proficiency. Fluency can be defined as ‘speed and smoothness of oral delivery’. We can measure the speed of oral delivery through calculating temporal variables such as speech rate and mean syllables per run where ‘run’ is the vocal chunk between silent pauses. The smoothness of oral delivery can be measured through examination of pausing patterns by classifying the placement of pauses. Pauses may be placed in expected positions such as clause/phrase boundaries or in unexpected positions. Pause placement in …