Sociocultural Causes of Non-lexicalized Pauses for Japanese Test-takers in the TOEFL ITP Speaking Section

Christian Burrows^1,

¹Department of Social System Design, Hiroshima Prefectural University, Hiroshima City, Japan

Cite this paper:
Christian Burrows. Sociocultural Causes of Non-lexicalized Pauses for Japanese Test-takers in the TOEFL ITP Speaking Section. American Journal of Educational Research. 2026; 14(9):316-320. doi: 10.12691/education-14-9-3

Abstract

Communication strategies (henceforth, CSs) represent a linguistic competence whose primary function is the management of language production problems between available linguistic resources and communicative intention. Substantial evidence corroborates their teachability as well as their effectiveness in mitigating prosodic features (e.g. hesitation) related to the perception of language fluency . Within the Japanese setting, however, exist potential sociocultural causes that can adversely impact Japanese EFL leaners’ CS reliance, and consequently speaking evaluation as measured on standardized English language proficiency tests. Results from a three-month quasi-experimental study into the instruction of 12 wide-ranging CSs assessed the relationship between CS application during authentic interaction. While findings confirm higher levels of CS reliance for the experimental group, they also highlight how expectations and beliefs prevalent among Japanese learners are linked to CS selection, employment, and reliance in managing emergent or surfaced communicative problems. Specifically, a preponderance of first language and avoidance-based communication strategies represents a determination to construct symmetrical L1-L2 constructs without acceptance of a degree of ambiguity or diminution of the optimal meaning. This exacting attention to detail can extend non-lexicalized pauses which reduces speaking rate as evaluated on TOEFL’s AI-powered SpeechRater.

Keywords:
Non-lexicalized pauses Under-elaboration Speaking fluency TOEFL Speaking test

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