Speech Disfluency Made by Male and Female Learners at Kampung Inggris Semarang

In utterance, there must be some disfluency whether in normal people or in stutterer. Moreover, the disfluency would be different if it was categorized into two based on the gender. The researchers’ figures out the disfluency based on the gender, male and female. The article was to find out any types of disfluency that appear on the male and female speeches, to find the dominant type of disfluency occured in male and female speeches, the difference between male and female speeches, and the factors causing the disfluency made by male and female speeches. The sample was 24 English learners at Kampung Inggris Semarang, 12 males and 12 females. In collecting the data the researchers used observation and interview. In analysing the data, the researchers used the theory from Clark and Wasow supported by Johnson and Bortfeld et.al. The result showed that nine types of disfluency occur in learners’ speech, i.e filler, silent pause, revision, incomplete phrase, broken word, repetition, grammatical disfluency, prolongation, and false start. The dominant disfluency occured in male and female speeches was filler. In the dominant disfluency, males produced more filers than females, whereas silent pause was more produced in female speeches. Besides, there was some factors causing disfluency made by male and female learners of Kampung Inggris Semarang, which were related to psychological factors. It included cognitive factors and affective factors. In total, male produced more disfluency than female. Besides that male learner made more factors which could affect the disfluency in their speeches than female learners, male learners were more likely not in mastering grammar and vocabularies and getting prepared in materials. Keywords: Speech Disfulency, Factors Speech Disfluency, Disfluency

Current Aspects of Speech Disfluency Research: Scientific Review of the International Workshop DiSS 19 (Budapest) Issues

Disfluency in spontaneous speech is currently a subject of study of specialists working in different fields of knowledge. Different external manifestations of disfluency (hesitation pauses, sound prolongations, pause fillers, articulatory perseverations and lexico-grammatical repetitions, self-corrections, breaks, nonverbal means of information transfer, etc.) are being investigated. They turn out to be a convenient tool for revealing and monitoring the peculiarities of cognitive processes with the help of explicit clearly registered signals occurring in speech under the influence of a number of extralinguistic factors such as the communicative situation, the type of speech (monologic or dialogic), the language of communication (L1 or L2), the emotional state of the speaker, the age, the social status, the diseases impairing speech and mental activity, and others. Further investigation of disfluency makes it possible to solve both a number of fundamental problems connected with modeling of cognitive coding and decoding speech processes and applied tasks connected with adoption of research findings in such fields as developmental pedagogy, psychology, medicine, foreign language training, translation, automatic recognition of speech signal, etc. Up to now, a sufficient number of empirical investigations have been carried out providing a basis for working out particular models which will make it possible, in the long run, to create the overall model of disfluency in spontaneous speech. Conferences and workshops undoubtedly play an important role in uniting the efforts of specialists in this sphere. One of them is the international workshop “Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech (DiSS)” that was first held in 1999. The current problems that were discussed by the participants of the workshop (production and perception speech models, age and clinical factors of disfluency, special difficulties in foreign speech production, including translation, speech technology) may be a useful reference point for researchers working on the issue.

Hesitaton Phenomena in COnversational Interaction Among Speaking EFL Learners

Hesitation is the phenomenon when people have speech disfluency in structuring sentences. English Conversation Club is one of the domains where hesitation phenomena occur among EFL learners that practicing their conversation. This study examines the hesitation phenomena and why the members are being hesitated during the interaction. Rose’s theory of taxonomy of hesitation phenomena (2012) is adopted. The approach used is the qualitative approach. Besides, the writer is also the participant observation to collect the data by recording and taking notes. This study resulted that most of the hesitation phenomena are found in the conversation conducted by the learners. The reason for being hesitant is unable to express the language and poor communication skills. Those occur spontaneously and naturally due to the reason that the processing of language in the brain is not as easy as it is produced directly.

Power Spectral Analysis upon Disfluent Utterance in Adults Who Stutter; a qEEG-based Investigation

Purpose: The present study which addressed adults who stutter (AWS), has been an attempt to investigate power spectral dynamics in stuttering state through answering the written questions using quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG).Materials and Methods: A 64-channel EEG setup was used for data acquisition in 9 AWS. Since speech, and especially stuttering, causes significant noise in the EEG, the three conditions of speech preparation (SP), imagined speech (IS), and simulated speech (SS) in a 7-band format were chosen to source localize the signals using the standard low-resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA) tool in fluent and disfluent states. Results: Having extracted enough fluent and disfluent utterances, significant differences were noted. Consistent with previous studies, the lack of beta suppression in SP, especially in beta2 and beta3 and somewhat in gamma band, was localized in supplementary motor area (SMA) and pre motor area in disfluent state. Delta band frequency was the best marker of stuttering shared in all 3 experimental conditions. Decreased delta power in SMA of both hemispheres and right premotor area through SP, in fronto-central and right angular gyrus through IS, and in SMA of both hemispheres through SS were a notable qEEG features of disfluent speech. Conclusion: The dynamics of beta and delta frequency bands may potentially explain the neural networks involved in stuttering. Based on the above, neurorehabilitation may better be formulated in the treatment of speech disfluency, namely stuttering.

Acoustically controlled auditory training in children with speech disfluency: a case report

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of the acoustically controlled auditory training on the speech fluency of children diagnosed with developmental stuttering. Two patients were submitted to speech fluency evaluation, basic audiological assessment, and central auditory processing assessment, before and after the intervention with the digital platform. Two male individuals (P1 and P2) participated in the research. They were respectively 8 and 9 years old, both were right-handed, native Brazilian Portuguese speakers, diagnosed with developmental stuttering, P1 presenting a moderate, and P2, a mild-to-moderate degree. There was an improvement in some auditory skills. However, there was no improvement in the speech fluency pattern in neither of the cases studied.

PERCEPTIONS OF SPEECH COMPETENCES IN FIRST AND FOREIGN LANGUAGE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS (Percepcija govornih kompetencija u materinskome i stranome jeziku kod učenika završnih razreda srednje škole)

The paper examines the attitudes of secondary school students, e. g. grammar school and craftmanship secondary school, toward their own language competences in the native (Croatian) and foreign (English) language. The testing instrument is a questionnaire with statements compiled according to questionnaires used to study attitudes toward the native and / or foreign language. The aim of the research is to observe the level of awareness of the respondents about their own language competences. The results of the statistical analysis indicate that the students of both populations are satisfied with their speaking skills in both languages. They also claim to recognize their own errors, as well as the errors and speech disfluencies of others. Grammar school students, unlike students from the craftmanship secondary school, find the introduction of a course that would further develop speaking skills useful. The obtained results are not in line with the dominant curricular guidelines for teaching the native language, especially those related to the area of speaking competences, emphasizing the need to strengthen the basic, spoken, and consequently written competences of students. The reasons for such attitudes could be explained by insufficient knowledge of the underlying features of highly developed communication competence and consequently of insufficient awareness of their own, as a necessary prerequisite for successful interaction in the contemporary society. The research results point to the necessity of acquiring a more objective perception of students about their own language competences. Keywords: speaking competences; speech errors; speech disfluency; students’ attitudes.

Stuttering as Defined by Adults Who Stutter

Purpose Numerous frameworks and definitions have sought to differentiate what behaviors and experiences should be considered as a part of stuttering. Nearly all of these efforts have been based on the perspectives and beliefs of conversational partners and listeners. This outside-in approach to defining stuttering lacks validation from people who live with the condition. Method In this study, 430 adults who stutter participated in a qualitative exploration of the term stuttering . Data were analyzed thematically to determine speakers' perspectives about moment of stuttering and the overall experience of stuttering in their lives. Results To adults who stutter, the term stuttering signifies a constellation of experiences beyond the observable speech disfluency behaviors that are typically defined as stuttering by listeners. Participants reported that the moment of stuttering often begins with a sensation of anticipation, feeling stuck, or losing control. This sensation may lead speakers to react in various ways, including affective, behavioral, and cognitive reactions that can become deeply ingrained as people deal with difficulties in saying what they want to say. These reactions can be associated with adverse impact on people's lives. This interrelated chain of events can be exacerbated by outside environmental factors, such as the reactions of listeners. Discussion Data from this survey provide novel evidence regarding what stuttering means to adults who stutter. These data are used to update the adaptation of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health as it applies to stuttering ( Yaruss & Quesal, 2004 ) to better account for the complex and individualized phenotype of stuttering and to develop a definition of the experience of stuttering that is based not only on the observations of listeners but also on the impact of stuttering on the lives of adults who stutter.