Disfluency and self‐repair in presentational and interpersonal speech modalities

The current study investigated disfluency and self‐repair in L2 presentational and interpersonal speech to determine whether speech modes may affect L2 self‐repair. Knowledge of self‐initiated repair behavior in L2 speech is particularly relevant for understanding psycholinguistic processes of L2 speech production. Different speech modes, such as presentational and interpersonal speech, may provide distinct psychological and discourse conditions for eliciting speech. Although presentational and interpersonal communicative skills are deemed crucial subskills of L2 ability, little research has examined whether patterns of L2 disfluency and self‐repair may vary between the two speech modes. The current study examined the distributions and rates of different types of disfluency signals, reparanda, and repair strategies manifested in presentational and interpersonal speech by advanced L2 Chinese speakers. The results revealed that in both speech modes, advanced Chinese speakers allocated significant repairing effort to correct lexical items and reformulate messages. The distributions and rates of different types of self‐repair exhibited significant between‐mode differences. The findings indicate that speaking practice through different modes may facilitate the development of L2 speaking skills in different areas. Further research is still needed to examine disfluency and self‐repair in various speech modes and with different L2 proficiency levels and task conditions. The Challenge Language instructors design task‐based activities to help their students develop speaking skills, but what about the different modalities? How do modes of speaking affect the speech that learners produce? This article demonstrates how presentational and interpersonal speaking may affect L2 learners’ disfluency and self‐repair patterns.