Temporal fluency variables in native and non-native English speech: Corpus findings and language-pedagogical implications
This paper summarizes some interim findings of a larger project on fluency and investigates some standard temporal fluency variables in learner language. The study compares data from the 86,000-word learner corpus LINDSEI-GE and the 118,000-word native speaker corpus LOCNEC with the aim of revealing those areas in which even advanced German learners of English deviate significantly from the native target norm, for example in significantly shorter mean lengths of runs. However, the results also indicate areas in which individual learners have already approximated to the target norm, for example in their use of filled pauses. The final part presents some language-pedagogical implications for improving learners’ temporal fluency that derive from these findings.
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