FILLERS IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE: AN ANALYSIS OF LECTURES FROM A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY IN GHANA

Charlotte Fofo Lomotey

Abstract


One way of ensuring fluency in lesson delivery for students to follow its flow in the classroom is through the use of fillers. This study examines the use of fillers in lectures in a public university in Ghana. Specifically, it investigates the types of fillers used in the Ghanaian English-medium classroom and discusses the communicative functions the fillers perform. To achieve these, real-time lessons were recorded from 24 lecturers in the university. The data were subjected to orthographic transcription, categorization, and thematic analysis of fillers for their types and functions in the lessons. Results show that the lecturers used 51 unlexicalized and lexicalized fillers. The unlexicalized ones comprised um, er, and uh while the lexicalized types consisted of lengthened syllables, repetition, and single words. With respect to the communicative functions, the fillers were found to perform cognitive functions (stalling and hesitating), social functions (attention getting and feedback), and discourse-regulatory functions (as editing term and discourse closing). Based on these results, it is proposed that lecturers should understand the importance of fillers so as to use them to their benefit and that of their students.

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


fillers, academic discourse, lectures, public university, Ghana

Full Text:

PDF

References


Books

Alton-Lee, A. 2003. Quality Teaching for Diverse Students in Schooling: Best Evidence Synthesis. Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Biber, D., Conrad, S., Reppen, R … Urzua, A. 2004. Representing Language Use in the University: Analysis of the TOEFL 2000 Spoken and Written Academic Language Corpus.

TOEFL Monograph Series. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.

Chaika, E. 2008. Language: The Social Mirror. 4th edn. Boston: Heinle.

Clark, H. H. 1996. Using Language. Cambridge: CUP.

Friedrich, G. W. 1994. Essentials of Speech Communication. Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association.

Holmes, J. 2013. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics 4th edn. NY: Routledge.

Jordan, D. J. 2001. Leadership in Leisure Service: Making a Difference 2nd edn. PA: Venture Publishing.

Levelt, W. J. M. 1989. Speaking: From Intention to Articulation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Matthei, E., & Roeper, T. 1983. Understanding and Producing Speech. New York: Universe Books.

Mccarthy, M. 1998. Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: CUP.

Stenström, A. 1994. An Introduction to Spoken Interaction. London: Longman.

Schiffrin, D. 1978. Discourse Markers. Cambridge: CUP.

Thornbury, S. & Slade, D. 2006. Conversation: From Description to Pedagogy. Cambridge: CUP.

Walsh, S. 2006. Investigating Classroom Discourse. New York: Routledge.

Yule, G. 2006. The Study of Language. Cambridge: CUP.

Scheppers, F. 2011. The Colon Hypothesis-Word Order, Discourse Segmentation and Discourse Coherence in Ancient Greek. Brussels: Vubpress.

Scarcella, R. 2003. Academic English: A Conceptual Framework. Irvine: University of California.

Mcleod, J., Fisher, J., & Hoover, G. 2003. The Key Elements of Classroom Management: Managing Time and Space, Student Behavior, and Instructional Strategies. Alexandria,

VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Richards, J. & Schmidt, R. 2012. Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. Essex: Longman.

Book Chapters

Chafe, W. (1979). The Flow of Thought and the Flow of Language. In Givon, T (Ed.), Syntax and Semantics 12: Discourse and Syntax (pp. 159-181). New York: Academic Press.

Hymes, D. H. 1972. On Communicative Competence. In Pride, J. B. & Holmes, J. Sociolinguistics (pp. 269-293). Baltimore, USA: Penguin.

Spitzberg, B. H. 1988. Communication Competence: Measures of Perceived Effectiveness. In Tardy, C. H. A. (ed.), Handbook for the Study of Human Communication: Methods and Instruments for Observing, Measuring, and Assessing Communication Processes (pp. 67-105). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.

Journal Articles

Arciuli, J. D. M., & Villar, G. 2010. Um, I Can Tell You’re Lying: Linguistic Markers of Deception versus Truth-Telling in Speech. Applied Psycholinguistics 31, 397-411.

Bailey, K. G. D., & Ferreira, F. 2003. Disfluencies Affect the Parsing of Garden Path Sentences. Journal of Memory and Language 49, 183-200.

Biber, D. Conard, S., & Cortes, V. 2004. If You Look at…: Lexical Bundles in University Teaching and Textbooks. Applied Linguistics 25.3, 371-405.

Bortfeld, H. Leon, S. D., Bloom, M. F., & Brennan, S. E. 2001. Disfluency Rates in Conversation: Effects of Age, Relationship, Topic, Role, and Gender. Language and Speech 44.2, 123.

Brennan, S. E., & Schober, M. F. 2001. How Listeners Compensate for Disfluencies in Spontaneous Speech. Journal of Memory and Language 44, 274-296.

Bublitz, W. 1989. Repetition in Spoken Discourse. Anglistentag 352-368.

Canale, M., & M. Swain. 1980. Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics 1.1, 1-47.

Clark, H. H., & J. E. Fox Tree. 2002. Using Uh and Um In Spontaneous Speaking. Cognition 34, 73-111.

Clark, H. H., & Wasow, T. 1998. Repeating Words in Spontaneous Speech. Cognitive Psychology 37, 201-242.

Corley, M., Macgregor, L. J., & Donaldson, D. I. 2007. It’s the Way that You, Er, Say it: Hesitations in Speech affect Language Comprehension. Cognition 105.3, 658-668.

Corley, M. D., & Stewart, O.W. 2008. Hesitation Disfluencies in Spontaneous Speech: The Meaning of Um. Language and Linguistics Compass 2.4, 589-604.

Dornyei, Z., & Kormos, J. 1998. Problem-Solving Mechanisms in L2 Communication. A Psycholinguistic Perspective. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 20, 349-385.

Erard, M. 2007. Um ...: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What they Mean. Germany: Anchor.

Erten, S. 2014. Teaching Fillers and Students’ Filler Usage: A Study Conducted at ESOGU Preparation School. International Journal of Teaching and Education 2.3, 67-79.

Flowerdew, J., & Tauroza, S. 1995. The Effect of Discourse Markers on Second Language Lecture Comprehension. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 17, 435-458.

Fox Tree, J. E. 2001. Listeners’ Uses of Um and Uh In Speech Comprehension. Memory & Cognition 29, 320-326.

Fox Tree, J. 2007. Folk Notions of Um and Uh, You Know, and Like. Text and Talk, 27, 297-314.

Fraundorf, S. H., & Watson, D. G. 2011. The Disfluent Discourse: Effects of Filled Pauses on Recall. Journal of Memory and Language 65, 161-175.

Garcés-Conejos, P., & Bou-Franch, P. 2002. A Pragmatic Account of Listenership: Implications from Foreign/Second Language Teaching. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses 15.17, 81-102.

Genç, B., Mavaşoğlu, M. & Bada, E. 2010.Types and Functions of Repetitions in the Narrations of Turkish Speakers of French. Novitas-ROYAL 4.2, 216-224.

Khojastehrad, S. 2012. Hesitation Strategies in Oral L2 Test among Iranian Students-Shifted from EFL Context to EIL. International Journal of English Linguistics 2.3, 10-21.

Kharismawan, P. Y. 2017. The Types and the Functions of the Fillers Used in Barack Obama’s Speeches. International Journal of Humanity Studies 1.1, 111-119.

Pamolango, V. A. 2015. Types and Functions of Fillers Used by the Female Teacher and Lecturer in Surabaya. Parafrase 15.1, 20-45.

Raclaw, J. 2008. Two Patterns for Conversational Closings in Instant Message Discourse. Colorado Research in Linguistics 21, 1-21.

Santos, N. M. B., Alarcón. M. M. H., & Pablo, I. M. 2016. Fillers and the Development of Oral Strategic Competence in Foreign Language Learning. Porta Linguarum 191-201.

Schachter, S., N., Christenfeld, B. R. & Bilous, F. 1991. Speech Disfluency and the Structure of Knowledge. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 60, 362-367.

Shriberg, E. 2001. To Errrr is Human: Ecology and Acoustics of Speech Disfluencies. Journal of The IPA 31.1, 153-169.

Stevani, A., Sudarsono, S. & Supardi, I. 2018. An Analysis of Fillers Usage in Academic Presentations. Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Pembelajaran Khatulistiwa 7.10, 1-9.

Watanabe, M. Hirose, K., Den, Y., & Minematsu, N. 2008. Filled Pauses as Cues to the Complexity of Upcoming Phrases for Native and Non-Native Listeners. Speech Communication 50, 81-94.

Wouk, F. 1998. Solidarity in Indonesian Conversation: The Discourse Markers Kan. Multilingua 17.4, 379-406.

Walsh, S. 2002. Construction or Obstruction: Teacher Talk and Learner Involvement in the EFL Classroom. Language Teaching Research 6.1, 3-23.

Tang, C. 2015. Applications of Stalling Mechanisms in Chinese-English Bilinguals’ L1 and L2 Spoken Discourse. International Journal of Bilingualism 19.1, 92-114.

Tottie, G. 2011. Uh and Um as Sociolinguistic Markers in British English. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 16.2, 173-197.

Online Articles

Baalen, I. V. 2001. Male and Female Language: Growing Together? Retrieved From http://www.Let.Leidenuniv.Nl/Hsl_Shl/Van%20Baalen.htm.

Dlugan, A. 2011. How to Stop Saying Um, Uh, and other Filler Words. Retrieved on July 12, 2020, From http://sixminutes.Dlugan.Com/Stop-Um-Uh-Filler-Words/

Conference Proceedings

Goto, M., K. Itou & S. Hayamizu. 1999. A Real-Time System Detecting Filled Pauses in Spontaneous Speech. Proceedings of Eurospeech, 227-230. Budapest: Hungary.

Maekawa, K. Koiso, H., Furui, S., & Isahara, H. 2000. Spontaneous Speech Corpus of Japanese.

Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, 1-6. ACL Anthology.

Veilleux, N. et al. 2007. Distribution of Disfluencies and Errors in English Discourse. In Proceedings of ICPhS, 16, 1349-1352. Saarbrücken.

Watanabe, M. 2002. Fillers as Indicators of Discourse Segment Boundaries in Japanese Monologues. In Proceedings of Speech Prosody, 691-694.

Thesis

Andriana, L. 2018. Filler Types and Function in Spontaneous Speech by Students at English Education Study Program of Iain Palangka Raya. Thesis, State Islamic Institute Of Palangkaraya.

Rose, R. L. 1998. The Communicative Value of Filled Pauses in Spontaneous Speech. PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejals.v3i2.248

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.

Copyright © 2018-2023. European Journal of Applied Linguistics Studies (ISSN 2602 - 0254 / ISSN-L 2602 - 0254). All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.