ABSTRACT
Second language learners are said to want to acquire not only the fluent speech patterns of native speakers but also their disfluent speech patterns. Based on this idea, this paper demonstrates that acquiring disfluent speech patterns of native Japanese speakers is actually effective for Japanese learners, thereby arguing for the usefulness of disfluency teaching. This paper is divided into two main parts. In the first part, we demonstrate that Japanese learners can sound natural when they acquire various types of disfluent characteristic of native Japanese speakers. In the second part, we focus on tsukkae, a kind of disfluent speech pattern which comprises suspension and prolongation of speech, and discusses their teaching method and effects, particularly their impact on communication, within the context of disfluency teaching efforts. The findings provide significant suggestions for the acquisition of disfluency in Japanese language education. Firstly, as a result of the tsukkae instruction, learners were able to apply it to their reading by understanding examples and methods, and by practicing. Secondly, learners’ speeches with tsukkae were rated by native speakers as significantly more conversational than those that did not contain it, simply comparing pre- and post-speeches, or even comparing speeches adjusted for prosody or tsukkae. The findings suggest that teaching tsukkae has great potential to help in the acquisition of a highly conversational and lively spoken language.
