![]() ![]() 3) have indicated duration of the syllable or vowel within the syllable to be a significant characteristic of filled pauses. by lip-rounding).Ī number of studies (Hughes et al., Citation2016a, Citation2016b Kaushik et al., Citation2010 Shriberg, Citation2001, p. F3 is the third resonance in the speech signal, likewise resulting from changes in the shape of the vocal tract (e.g. by changing the shape and location of the tongue). With respect to the vowel qualities, F1 and F2 are the main formants that shape vowels, resulting from changes in the shape of the vocal tract (e.g. ![]() ![]() Overall pitch can be measured through F0, which is the fundamental frequency of a sound, resulting from the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. In short, these include duration in milliseconds, overall pitch, and vowel qualities. The next paragraph will describe previous research that has indicated acoustic characteristics of filled pauses so far. Instead, this study will use general, acoustic properties of the signal to detect filled pauses. It is (as yet) not feasible to arrive at correctly recognised speech including filled pauses for L2 speakers with many diverse accents, in multiple languages (but see recent developments for English, Moussalli & Cardoso, Citation2020). The present study, rather than using automatic speech recognition, will only aim to detect filled pauses. De Jong, Citation2016 Kahng, Citation2014), to be strong predictors of communicative adequacy in task fulfilment (Révész et al., Citation2016), and to be related to overall L2 proficiency (De Jong, Citation2016). Although the script has been used to measure these aspects of pausing and speed, information on filled pauses such as ‘uhm’ and ‘uh’ is, as yet, missing, although filled pauses have been shown to distinguish between L1 and L2 speech (e.g. To aid future research into the relation between specific aspects of fluency and proficiency, and potentially for the purpose of assessing fluency automatically in language testing, the present study set out to investigate to what extent aspects of fluency may be evaluated automatically.ĭe Jong and Wempe ( Citation2009) developed a tool that measures some aspects of fluency: silent pauses (frequency and duration) and speed of speaking, automatically, without the need for transcribing or even manual annotations and measurements. Having established the importance of fluency as part of oral proficiency, we note that measuring aspects of fluency are highly time-consuming. It is therefore no wonder that language tests include aspects of fluency in their rubrics to distinguish levels of proficiency as in the often-used Test of English as a Foreign Language internet Based Test (TOEFL iBT), the International English Language Testing System Academic (IELTS), the oral proficiency interview of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL OPI), and in the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTEA). In addition to this theoretic reasoning, there is ample research showing that holistic evaluations of proficiency are (highly) related to measures of fluency in speech (Ginther et al., Citation2010 Iwashita et al., Citation2008 Kahng, Citation2014 Kang et al., Citation2010 Révész et al., Citation2016). In short, disfluencies in speech are telling of speaking proficiency: only highly proficient L2 learners with highly developed L2 knowledge and skills will be able to fluently express their thoughts, without undue hesitations. Moreover, the L2 linguistic knowledge that is needed may at times be insufficient, which may cause disfluencies, for instance, when the speaker decides to reconceptualise, circumventing the need for the specific L2 linguistic knowledge (see Segalowitz, Citation2010 for an elaborate description of disfluencies in L2 speaking). However, it will be more difficult, because the processes are less automatised in the L2, especially those needed for linguistic formulation of the message. When speaking in a second language (L2), the same stages are needed to proceed from thoughts to articulated sounds. ‘uh’, ‘uhm’), or slowing down articulation speed. If at any stage of the speech production process the speaker encounters a problem, the speaker will become disfluent, which may result in silent pauses, filled pauses (e.g. There are roughly three stages in speech production: conceptualising what to say, formulating how to say this in language, and finally articulating the appropriate sounds (e.g. Before a speaker is able to articulate the appropriate sounds, a number of speech production processes have been carried out and have been carried out quickly. ![]()
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