A Study on Nonfluent Utterances that are Difficult to Understand by Japanese Learners : Focusing on Corrections and Pauses

The purpose of this study is to clarify the features of utterances by Japanese learners that are assessed to be difficult to understand by native Japanese speakers, focusing on the formers' corrections and pauses in their utterances. As the result of an analysis of utterances made by two Japanese learners who are assessed to be the highest-ranked and the lowest-ranked respectively in “comprehensibility” by eight Japanese native speakers, it has been confirmed that there have been many more corrections and the accompanying pauses in utterances that are difficult to understand. Further, it has been observed that corrections seen in utterances that are difficult to understand include various forms of corrections such as repetitions, paraphrases, and insertions of words. It has been also observed that numerous corrections are made to these various forms because of the previous unsatisfactory corrections. These corrections made in succession are characterized by the accompaniment of long pauses in the processes and inclusion of some paraphrases. In conclusion, it has been suggested that these successive corrections i ncluding substitutions of words and phrases and the accompanying long pauses affect listeners' comprehensibility