Examines quantitative data concerning hesitation phenomena in relation to the subjective perceptions of listeners of nonnative English. Findings reveal that subjective judgments of the number of hesitations or pauses in nonnative speech derive from total pausing time, percentage of pause time, and the length of the longest pause in discourse. (30…

Examines the accuracy of the current public attitude that instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL) at the college level is too expensive, and that nonnative students' success is not commensurate with the cost of teaching them. The article argues that these students represent the country's future and that educators must counter the assault…

Explores whether pragmatic fluency is best acquired by provision of input and opportunity for communicative practice alone, or whether learners profit more with additional explicit instruction in the use of conversational routines. The article hypothesized that such instruction raises learners' awareness of the functions and contextual…

A study was planned to generate a model for testing second language education that would incorporate task types to allow the display of fluency. It is argued that the display of oral fluency can be used as a selection criterion for inclusion of test items in multitask or portfolio assessment. The following three research questions were formulated:…

This article discusses the expression of gratitude in spoken English by Japanese and American college students in the United States. Five hypotheses were tested: (1) Advanced non-native speakers would find expressing gratitude difficult in the target language; (2) A verbal expression of regret would occur whenever the Japanese speaker believes he…