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Fluency assessment

Incorporating syntactic distance in a new measure of pause location

ORCiD logo with link | Université Grenoble Alpes
ORCiD logo with link | Leiden University
Published online: 13 March 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.25042.cou
Abstract
Speech fluency is often assessed using articulation rate and pause frequency. However, not all pauses hinder fluency: when placed strategically, they structure discourse and enhance comprehensibility. To better characterize speaker fluency, it is crucial to consider where pauses occur. Traditional approaches rely on categorical syntactic boundaries (e.g., clauses or phrases), but inadequately capture syntactic complexity. We propose a continuous measure of pause placement based on syntactic distance between adjacent words. Using spontaneous English speech from Japanese learners and native speakers, we show that syntactic distance robustly predicts both pause location and duration across proficiency levels. We compare its contribution to proficiency classification against baseline and categorical models. The syntactic distance model outperforms all others, explaining 87% of variance (versus 65% for baseline and 76% for clause/phrase models), with strongest model fit and lowest prediction error. This measure provides a robust and meaningful predictor of L2 speech fluency.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature Review
    • 2.1Syntactic Structure Predicting L1 and L2 Pauses
    • 2.2Pause Position and L2 Fluency Perception
    • 2.3Related Work
    • 2.4Research Questions
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1Data
      • CLES-JP Corpus
      • CLES-EN Corpus
    • 3.2Pause Prediction
    • 3.3Statistical Analyses
      • Pause Occurrence Prediction
      • Pause Duration Prediction
      • Proficiency Classification
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Descriptive Statistics
    • 4.2Pause Occurrence Prediction
      • Pause Occurrence and Clause/Phrase Boundaries
      • Pause Occurrence and Syntactic Distance
    • 4.3Pause Duration Prediction
      • Pause Duration and Clause/Phrase Boundaries
      • Pause Duration and Syntactic Distance
    • 4.4Overall Proficiency Prediction
      • Baseline Model Performance
      • Categorical Syntactic Boundary Measures
      • Continuous Syntactic Distance
      • Collinearity Assessment
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Theoretical Implications
    • 5.2Methodological Contributions
    • 5.3Practical Applications and Pedagogical Implications
    • 5.4Limitations and Future Directions
  • Conclusion
  • Code
  • Notes
  • References
References (50)
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