An Analysis of Pausing Patterns in English Presentations by Thai Undergraduate Students: Types and Underlying Causes

Pausing plays a vital role in second language speech production, enhancing fluency, cognitive processing, and discourse organization. This study investigated Thai EFL undergraduate learners' pausing patterns in their English presentations, focusing on pause types, variations across speaking tasks, and the underlying causes of pausing. The participants were twenty first-year students, selected through purposive sampling. The participants completed two speaking tasks and semi-structured interviews. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while interview data were analyzed thematically. The findings showed that the participants made 412 pauses, with silent pauses being the most prominent, followed by unlexicalized and lexicalized fillers, respectively. Most of the pauses were observed at clause boundaries, reflecting their function as rhetorical organizers rather than mere hesitation markers. There were also differences across speaking tasks. Participants employed more silent and unlexicalized pauses in less familiar topics and used more lexicalized discourse markers in more familiar ones. Thematic analysis further indicated that the four major factors affecting pausing were lexical access, grammatical focus, affective conditions, and rhetorical control. The pedagogical implications suggest that pause lessons should be integrated into speaking classes to improve learners' speech. Future research should increase the sample size and examine pausing in different contexts.