| Attainment of oral fluency is one of the primary goals of foreign language instruction. The present study focuses on the aspect of fluency that has received the least attention to date, the temporal one. More specifically, this study examines the relationship between foreign language proficiency and pausal phenomena (i.e., pause duration, pause frequency and pause distribution) in the speech of 30 Russian speakers of English performing two oral tasks, topic narrative and cartoon description, in their native language, Russian, and in their foreign language, English. The subjects were divided into two oral English proficiency groups, high and intermediate, on the basis of a standardized test of spoken English. Baseline data were collected from a control group of 20 American English native speakers. Data collected from the samples were transcribed and analyzed statistically.; The results of the study suggest that foreign language proficiency impacts the temporal aspects of foreign language speech such as pause duration. It was found that after attaining a certain advanced level of foreign language speaking proficiency, the person is able to adjust the length of pauses to produce a native-like pause duration norm. In terms of pause frequency, it was found that even highly proficient foreign language speakers still make more pauses when speaking a foreign language than when speaking their native language. The frequency of their pausing, however, was found to be appropriate for native speech. The examination of pause distribution suggests that persons with high and intermediate foreign language speaking proficiency make the same number of within-constituent pauses as native speakers.; Overall, the findings of this investigation provide grounds for suggesting that cross-linguistic differences involve, among many other elements, contrasts in pausing patterns in speech. Therefore, a non-native speaker who does not adhere to a pausing pattern that is a norm in the target language will likely be perceived as lacking native-like fluency and smoothness of performance, while increasing the impression of 'foreignness' of speech. The findings of this study highlight the importance of exposing foreign language students to a richer variety of situations that illustrate native patterns of verbal communication. |
