Categorical differences in the false starts of speakers of English as a second language: further evidence for developmental disfluency

Although much is known about the formal properties of L2 repair in general and error corrections in particular, less in known about other subtypes, here collectively referred to as false starts. Unlike L2 self-corrections, false starts are psycholinguistically more comparable with NS equivalents and are of particular interest as possible sites of learner monitoring and modified output. Consistent with previous research on L2 repairs, this study found that lower-intermediate and advanced L2 speakers produced similar numbers of false starts. Their mapping by speaker proficiency level onto Levelt’s (1989) model of speech production revealed that both groups were concerned with lexical and morphological false start repair but that lower-intermediate speakers produced more syntactic and advanced speakers more conceptual examples.