| This empirical study is designed to investigate pause patterns in oral reading performed by Chinese English learners at different proficiency levels, in an attempt to research into the variation in information processing leading to different pause patterns. The subjects in the present study are 30 Chinese learners, including 10 postgraduates, 10 undergraduates majoring in English and 10 non-English undergraduates who are grouped into lower-intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced proficiency levels. The study examines pauses shown in oral reading made by these subjects quantitatively and qualitatively, aiming to find out pause patterns revealed in their oral reading. The statistical technique employed for analysis is one-way ANOVA. Through the analysis of the results, we have the following findings:1) Subjects at higher proficiency level make fewer and more appropriate pauses than those at lower proficiency level, but do not necessarily make shorter pauses.2) Subjects at higher proficiency level make more part of acceptable pauses than subjects at lower proficiency level.3) Subjects at higher proficiency level make fewer and shorter pauses than subjects at lower proficiency level. Moreover, most part of inappropriate pauses occur in PP, VP and NP among subjects at three levels.4) Compared with acceptable pauses and inappropriate pauses, self-repair related pauses account for the least part of all pauses. Despite the trend that subjects at higher proficiency level make fewer and shorter pauses remains, upper- intermediate subjects make longer self-repair pauses than lower-intermediate subjects.5) Acceptable pauses made by subjects at advanced proficiency level are similar to natural and appropriate pauses detected by native speakers to a great extent. Some pedagogical implications are made in the following:The uncover pause patterns revealed in this study serve the purpose of providing teachers with general picture of learners'pausing while reading aloud. Having known...
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