5.4. Hesitation Phenomena

a) hesitation pauses, comprising unfilled (silent, voiceless), filled (voiced) and mixed varieties;

b) hesitation drawls, i.e. lengthening of sounds, syllables and words;

c) repetition of syllables and words;

d) false starts to words followed by self-corrections;

e) re-starting a construction or a sentence to conform more to what the speaker wants to say;

f) unfinished intonation groups, often accompanied by reduced loudness of the voice;

g) fillers-in, such as “well”, “and”, “you see”, “you know”, “in fact”, “I mean”, “mind you”, “but”, etc.

h) random vocalisations and such “phonetic oddities” as clicks, trills, intakes of breath etc.

5.5.Fillers

In English a lot of phrases are used as “fillers”, to allow time for thought or to involve the listener in the way the speaker’s mind is working.

I. Look at sentences 1-7 and work out the function of each filler, using clues a-e below.

1. Well, I did learn Japanese on my own...

2. I mean, my grammar was probably appalling...

3. ... I just remember learning tables in Latin... and in French, you know, the same.

4. ... it was in fact direct method...

5. ... I literally learnt it through learning words, and, in fact, it worked quite well.

6. ... at the same time I felt sort of guilty...

7. ... it was interesting because I actually felt, you know, the most communicative things... were really exciting and interesting.

a This adds explanation for the listener. ___

b This is a qualifier, often used with adjectives. ___

c This emphasises or adds surprising details. ___

d This usually introduces or continues a sentence. ___

e This often includes the listeners by assuming

that they have certain knowledge. ___

II. Use fillers to complete this dialogue, then check your answers with the tape.

A: Didn’t you learn one of your languages through a very interesting method?

B: Mm, yes, I did. I learnt Turkish here, in London, through a, a (1) ... humanistic method.

A: Humanistic? What’s that?

B: It’s, mm, (2) ..., a method which is intended to be pleasant, and to give the learners total involvement and control.

A: Oh, I see. (3) ..., what exactly was it?

B: Ah, (4) ..., it’s called Community Language Learning and it can only really be done with a teacher who’s totally bilingual. It’s, em, (5) ... translation-based. (6) ... oral translation, there’s no written translation.

A: So what happens exactly?

B: (7) ..., the learners all sit in a group and decide on a topic they want to talk about, usually keeping it fairly simple (8) ... asking simple questions about each other. Someone asks a question, in the foreign language or in their native language if necessary and the teacher provides any new language, but into the learner’s ear, so he or she then asks the question in the group.

A: But surely the other learners won’t understand the question?

B: No, (9) ... understanding is easy. That’s the funny thing. I think it’s because of body language and certain expectations. (10) ..., if you’re talking about work, the obvious question is “What do you do?”, isn’t it?