The Frequency of Non-Lexicalized Fillers in the Repeated Task

Mirjana M Kovač, Ana Sarić

Abstract


The aim of this paper is to examine the frequency of non-lexicalized fillers in the repeated task of retelling a structured story narration. The subjects were 33 students of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture in Split who performed the same narrative task twice in the English language (L2). The speech was recorded usingthe computer program Audacity and transcribed. All non-lexicalized fillers were recorded, and statistically analyzed, pointing to a significantly less frequent occurrence in the repeated speech. The results are explained by Levelt’s model,

i.e. the reduced processing requirements at all levels of speech production and greater opportunities for speech monitoring. The obtained results have practical implications, as they point to the positive impact of immediate repetition aiming at developing more fluent speech, even in the case of more proficient speakers.


Keywords


non-lexicalized fillers; task repetition; fluency

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