An investigation into the relationship between the type of self-repair and structural complexity of utterances

Abstract

This study is concerned with the investigation of the relationship between the type of self-repair and the structural complexity of utterances in which they appear, focusing mainly on syntactic self-repairs. The subjects of the study were 48 students of East Asian backgrounds, learning English as a second language in Australia. Specifically, this study has sought to establish a relationship between the occurrence of syntactic repairs and the complexity of syntactic structures L2 speakers use. The findings suggest that the occurrence of repairs in general (that is, without relating specific categories of repair to structural complexity) does not appear to be related to the syntactic complexity of the structures in which they occur. However, the scrutiny of the position of syntactic self-repairs is indicative of a relationship between the frequency of syntactic self-repairs and the complexity of the syntactic structures, suggesting that for those who learn English as their second language, the complexity of syntactic structures must be one, if not the,contributing factor leading to the occurrence of syntactic repairs. For other kinds of repairs, including phonological, morphological/lexical, appropriacy and information-structuring repairs, the occurrence of repairs is unrelated to syntactic complexity. Keywords: Structural Complexity; Self-repairs; Second language learning; Class room presentation.