Rhythm and disfluency: Interactions in Chinese L2 English speech

Abstract

This paper mainly focused on the rhythm patterns in Chinese L2 English speech, either in read or spontaneous speech style. The main purpose is to investigate the rhythmic differences between Chinese L2 and English L1 speakers as well as the possibility of rhythmic variation between spontaneous and read speech style; and last but not least, to figure out the effects of disfluency on Chinese L2 English rhythm. It is found that Chinese L2 learners can successfully acquire discourse rhythm patterns in a more natural speech style but how to manipulate vocalic duration variability is still a major challenge. Compared with English natives, Chinese L2 learners are considerably more disfluent, in terms of time-related and performance-related aspects; moreover, apply different planning strategies from English natives. Temporal fluency has a big impact on Chinese L2 speech rhythm.