A Study On Disfluent Repetitions In Spoken English By English Major Undergraduates At Different L2 Levels

Disfluency is a common phenomenon in spoken English output,but repetition is one of the most common types of disfluency in natural speech.At present,there is no unified framework for disfluency.Oral fluency is an important factor in determining English proficiency.In the measurement of oral fluency,repetition is one of the important time indicators.Repetition is a necessary part of spoken language.It reflects the speaker’s internal activities during the speech preparation process.The phenomenon of disfluent repetition in second language conversation is not necessarily caused by language competence.Relevant studies show that disfluent repetition in some contexts may be a pragmatic strategy adopted by speakers and play a positive role in promoting the development of second language conversation.Therefore,this study refers to the disfluent repetition in Chinese English learners’ second language conversation due to pragmatic factors as pragmatic disfluent repetition.The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic and in-depth study of disfluent repetition in second language conversations of Chinese learners of English from a pragmatic perspective,so as to comprehensively investigate the formal representation and communicative function of disfluency and its enlightening significance for English teaching and learning.By investigating the relationship between second language proficiency and repetition in Chinese English learners,this study aims to solve the following problems:(1)What are the forms of disfluent repetition? What are the differences in the forms of disfluent repetition among Chinese English learners at different second language levels in oral conversation?(2)What are the differences in the use of linguistic disfluent repetition and pragmatic disfluent repetition among Chinese English learners at different second language levels in oral conversation?(3)What are the functions of the disfluent repetition? What are the differences in the use of repetition functions among Chinese English learners at different second language levels in oral conversation?In order to address these issues,the study begins with a systematic study of various forms of disfluent repetition,and divides it into linguistic disfluent repetition and pragmatic disfluent repetition according to the dimensions involved in language use.Disfluent repetition is a phenomenon of delay and correction due to the communicator’s difficulties at a certain level of language(e.g.pronunciation,vocabulary,syntax,semantics,etc.),or for the correct expression of language.Pragmatic disfluent repetition is a phenomenon of delay or correction in order to express oneself more appropriately and appropriately.As far as learners are concerned,in order to achieve their communicative goals in oral expression,they may have some verbal repetition due to pragmatic factors(such as face,politeness,etc.),which is called pragmatic disfluent repetition.Based on this framework,this study selects the corpus of Chinese Students’ Spoken English Corpus(SECCL)as the object of analysis,and adopts the method of comparative analysis to compare the use of repetition phenomenon in the oral disfluent output of English majors with different second language levels.The phenomenon of disfluent repetition in various forms has been systematically investigated.The Chi-square test of SPSS was used to explore whether there were differences between learners at different levels.The results show that:(1)The forms of disfluent repetition include word repetition,phrase repetition,syllable repetition,nonword filler repetition,and nonstructural multiword repetition.Students in the low-level group used disfluent repetition significantly more frequently than those in the high-level group,and there was a significant difference in the frequency of disfluent repetition between students in the low-level group and those in the high-level group,learners in the low-level group used the most word repetition,followed by nonstructural repetition,and less syllable repetition,non-word filler repetition,and phrase repetition.However,high-level learners used the most nonstructural repetition,followed by word repetition,and rarely use syllable repetition,non-word filler repetition,and phrase repetition.(2)Disfluency repetition includes linguistic disfluent repetition and pragmatic disfluent repetition,among which low-level learners use linguistic disfluent and pragmatic disfluent repetition significantly higher than high-level learners,And there was a significant difference in the frequency of using discursive disfluent repetition between the low and high groups,that is,the frequency of linguistic disfluent repetition is almost the same for low-level learners and the frequency of pragmatic disfluent repetition is twice as high as that of pragmatic disfluent repetition for high-level learners.(3)The corpus is analyzed to explore the functions of repetition,such as the function of winning extraction time,the function of adjusting information transfer,the function of adjusting interpersonal relations,and the function of adjusting conversational organization.Overall,there was no significant difference in the frequency of use of the earned time function and the communication function between students in the low and high-level groups.However,in terms of the three functions of communication,the use frequency of “information transfer regulation” and “conversation organization adjustment” of low-level learners is significantly higher than that of high-level learners.Disfluent repetition indicates that undergraduate English majors encounter difficulties in oral output,especially in the process of second language acquisition.In addition,disfluent repetition is also a strategy adopted by speakers to maintain the continuity of discourse expression.As one of the indicators for assessing spoken English,English teachers should recognize the importance of disfluent repetition,help students to use it flexibly in their oral output to avoid unnecessary repetition,and improve students’ ability to learn independently.