Graduation Year
2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Ph.D.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Degree Granting Department
Language, Literacy, ED.D., Exceptional Education, and Physical Education
Major Professor
Matia Carlo, Ph.D.
Co-Major Professor
Sara Smith, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Maria S. Carlo, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Ai Leen Choo, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Sanghoon Park, Ph.D.
Abstract
Individuals with lower proficiency in a second language tend to produce more disfluent speech patterns in the second language. Speech disfluencies refer to interruptions in the forward flow of speech and are distinct from the colloquial use of “fluency,” to characterize knowledge of a language. Prior research indicates that some speech disfluency patterns may be more common among Spanish-English bilingual children, who tend to produce more mazes (fragments of an utterance) and syllable repetitions than their monolingual peers. These patterns have been attributed to 1) acquiring a new language; 2) the influence of Spanish as a first language (L1) on English as a second language (L2); and 3) bilingual language management. The current study explored the quantity and frequency of speech disfluencies produced by six 4th-grade Spanish-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) during remote academic vocabulary instruction who were placed in single-language and mixed-language instruction conditions, comparing outcomes across conditions. The current study addresses the following questions: 1) What types of English disfluency patterns are portrayed by EL Spanish-speaking children? 2) Are there differences in the total number of Stuttering-like Disfluencies (SLD), the total of Typical Disfluencies (TD) and the total of all disfluencies across mixed and single-language conditions? 3)Are there differences in the total number of specific types of disfluencies across conditions? Data collected included 33 video samples from participants’ instructional sessions. This resulted in 33 analyzable transcripts. These video samples were transcribed and analyzed using Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN). Results allowed for characterization of speech disfluencies portrayed by children who are Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs). Differences among conditions were not statistically significant.
Scholar Commons Citation
Garcia, Ester, "Differences in Speech Patterns Produced by Spanish-English Language Learners During Single-Language and Mixed-Language Remote Academic Vocabulary Instruction" (2024). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/10510
