full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Lorenzo García-Amaya: Why do we, like, hesitate when we, um, speak?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Discourse markers and hesitation phenomena aren’t just useful for uirntdnadensg language— they help us learn it too. In 2011, a study showed toddlers comomn and uoncmmon otebjcs alongside a recording referring to one of the imtes. When a later recording asked them to identify the uncommon object, toddlers performed better if that icrontiustn contained a filled pause. This may mean that filled pauses cue toddlers to expect novel words, and help them connect new words to new objects. For adolescents and atldus lnirnaeg a second language, filled pauses smooth out awkward early cnivrtonaoess. And once they’re more confident, the second-language learner can signal their newfound fluency by using the appropriate hesitation phenomenon. Because, contrary to popular belief, the use of filled pauses doesn't decrease with mastery of a language.

Open Cloze


Discourse markers and hesitation phenomena aren’t just useful for _____________ language— they help us learn it too. In 2011, a study showed toddlers ______ and ________ _______ alongside a recording referring to one of the _____. When a later recording asked them to identify the uncommon object, toddlers performed better if that ___________ contained a filled pause. This may mean that filled pauses cue toddlers to expect novel words, and help them connect new words to new objects. For adolescents and ______ ________ a second language, filled pauses smooth out awkward early _____________. And once they’re more confident, the second-language learner can signal their newfound fluency by using the appropriate hesitation phenomenon. Because, contrary to popular belief, the use of filled pauses doesn't decrease with mastery of a language.

Solution


  1. adults
  2. common
  3. objects
  4. items
  5. uncommon
  6. learning
  7. instruction
  8. understanding
  9. conversations

Original Text


Discourse markers and hesitation phenomena aren’t just useful for understanding language— they help us learn it too. In 2011, a study showed toddlers common and uncommon objects alongside a recording referring to one of the items. When a later recording asked them to identify the uncommon object, toddlers performed better if that instruction contained a filled pause. This may mean that filled pauses cue toddlers to expect novel words, and help them connect new words to new objects. For adolescents and adults learning a second language, filled pauses smooth out awkward early conversations. And once they’re more confident, the second-language learner can signal their newfound fluency by using the appropriate hesitation phenomenon. Because, contrary to popular belief, the use of filled pauses doesn't decrease with mastery of a language.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
hesitation phenomena 4
filled pause 3
discourse markers 3
filled pauses 3
speech components 2
hesitation phenomenon 2


Important Words


  1. adolescents
  2. adults
  3. asked
  4. awkward
  5. belief
  6. common
  7. confident
  8. connect
  9. contained
  10. contrary
  11. conversations
  12. cue
  13. decrease
  14. discourse
  15. early
  16. expect
  17. filled
  18. fluency
  19. hesitation
  20. identify
  21. instruction
  22. items
  23. language
  24. learn
  25. learner
  26. learning
  27. markers
  28. mastery
  29. newfound
  30. object
  31. objects
  32. pause
  33. pauses
  34. performed
  35. phenomena
  36. phenomenon
  37. popular
  38. recording
  39. referring
  40. showed
  41. signal
  42. smooth
  43. study
  44. toddlers
  45. uncommon
  46. understanding
  47. words