Listeners' Perception of Silent Pauses : In Passages Delivered at a Slower and a Faster Rate

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This paper attempts to examine whether less proficient Japanese EFL learners can perceive silent pauses in listening passages. Although silent pauses at constituent boundaries are assumed to facilitate listening comprehension in two ways, by providing processing time and by grouping words into constituents, little research has been done concerning the perception of silent pauses. A total of 91 less proficient university students (84 male and 7 female) participated in the study. The control group listened to a short listening passage taken from Voice of America broadcasts (109 words per minute), and the experimental group listened to the same passage whose duration of the silent pauses were cut down by half (124 wpm). They were told to follow the script of the passage with their eyes as they were listening to the tape, and put a check mark in the script where they thought there were silent pauses. The same procedure was taken as to the passages at a faster rate (pause-intact version, 162 wpm; pause-reduced version, 167 wpm). Results showed that both groups exhibited considerable ability to perceive silent pauses in spite of the variables added to the listening passages. Above all, pause length was highly relevant to pause perception.
外国語教育メディア学会の論文