Pausing preceding and following to in to-infinitives: A study with implications to reading and speaking skills in ELT

Research on pausing strategies, particularly in speaking, has been in place for the past few decades. Within this framework, this study reports on the audio recordings produced by native speakers of English, and aims to describe different silent pausing strategies as they were employed by these speakers in English. The audio recordings were provided in a twofold procedure: while 9 participants watched a film and then commented on various themes of the film, 11 participants read a mini Disney story aloud. Considerable attention was given to pausing preceding (PP) and pausing following (PF) the to particle in to-infinitive phrases as well as to the duration of this particle.Obtained results display significant differences between pausing preceding and following to both in spontaneous and read speech. While pausing preceding to was observed to be significantly longer than the following position in read speech, in spontaneous speech it was just the opposite. This observation, partly, justifies the theory of principles and parameters (PPT). Findings of this research may have significant implications for reading and speaking skills of EFL learners in particular, and L2 learners in general.