著者

中村 英子

出版者

中国地区英語教育学会

雑誌

中国地区英語教育学会研究紀要

巻号頁・発行日

vol.38, pp.1-10, 2008

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This paper tries to see the process of oral language learning by exploring how the nature and the use of unfilled/filled pauses and other time-creating devices change over time, and by comparing the patterns used by learners of different proficiencies. First, learners' pauses are quantitatively examined by pause/time ratio, and then qualitatively studied to see individual differences. Unfilled pauses seem to have been gradually replaced with other time-creating devices, and the locations of pauses were seen to be different among different proficiency learners. Pauses and other time-creating devices are also used in effective ways other than as problem-solving devices. The author proposes that the use of those devices for language retrieval difficulties could be useful for language learning, not just as markers of language disfluency or deficiency.