Effects of speaking task and proficiency on the midclause pausing characteristics of L1 and L2 speech from the same speakers

Abstract This study explored the effect of speaking task on midclause pausing characteristics in L1 and L2 speech same speakers to gain further insights into potential relationship between pause location stages production. Participants included English learners French ( n = 29) or Spanish 27) from publicly available, longitudinal LANGSNAP corpus. completed two oral tasks their L2: a picture-based narrative semistructured interview. The rate, duration, proportion pauses were compared as well before during residence abroad. In L1, results indicated more fluent performance except for rate. When L2, participants showed improvement each measure but ultimately remained less comparison L1. interview task, only that consistently differentiated was findings call nuanced interpretation connections formulation suggest rate is least influenced by task.