Repetitions as vocalized fillers and self-repairs in English and French interlanguages

The use of communication strategies (CS) varies among second language (L2) learners. According to research, L2 learners resort to CS in times of difficulty. These strategies are also consciously or unconsciously utilized during language learning. One common CS strategy is the use of repetition, which entails the repetition of syntactic and/or lexical items by L2 learners.In order to observe prevalence, type and systematicity of repetition, two movies were shown to non-native speakers of English (NNSE) and non-native speakers of French (NNSF). Oral comments about the movies were elicited from the participants and then analyzed with a specific focus on repeated elements.The results of this study indicate that repetitions of grammatical and/or lexical elements were made irrespective of types or word class, phrase or sentence level. Most repeated elements among NNSE were observed to be verbs, pronouns and prepositions, and among NNSF, pronouns, determiners and verbs. Repetitions were made (1) as vocalized fillers, and (2) as self-repairs. These findings have significant implications for the teaching of English and French with specific reference to L2 learners’ oral communicative competence.