Fluency is usually defined in relation to temporal features such as speed of delivery and pauses, and such features are generally the focus of research on fluency. The reasons why pauses occur, however, have received much less attention. This study first explores the distribution and location of pauses in short academic presentations given by students as part of an English for academic purposes (EAP) course at an Australian university. This data is then used to investigate the reasons for a sample of those pauses, using the researchers’ interpretations, followed by student explanations in stimulated recall interviews (SRIs). The main findings provide confirmation that the location and the reasons for those pauses which are likely to affect the fluency of the presentations are a result not only of linguistic and cognitive issues, but also of psychological factors. The results underline the importance of taking all of these factors into account in EAP programmes by encouraging student awareness of their pausing behaviour, its causes, the effect on their audience, and of strategies for dealing with psycholinguistic, as well as linguistic and cognitive issues. The results confirm the value of SRI as a technique in exploring assumptions about the reasons for pauses, and the limitation of focusing solely on statistical analyses of pausing phenomena.

中文翻译：

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第二语言学院演讲中的流畅性问题：语言、认知和心理对停顿行为的影响

流畅度通常是根据时间特征（例如传递速度和停顿）来定义的，这些特征通常是流畅度研究的重点。然而，暂停发生的原因却很少受到关注。本研究首先探讨了澳大利亚大学学术英语 (EAP) 课程中学生进行的简短学术演讲中停顿的分布和位置。然后，利用研究人员的解释，以及学生在刺激回忆访谈（SRI）中的解释，利用这些数据来调查这些停顿样本的原因。主要发现证实，可能影响演示流畅性的停顿的位置和原因不仅是语言和认知问题的结果，也是心理因素的结果。结果强调了在 EAP 项目中考虑所有这些因素的重要性，通过鼓励学生了解他们的停顿行为、其原因、对受众的影响以及处理心理语言学以及语言和认知问题的策略。结果证实了 SRI 作为探索暂停原因假设的技术的价值，以及仅关注暂停现象统计分析的局限性。