Disfluencies and Rate of Speech of Young Adult Normal Talkers in an Interview Situation

Relatively little research has been conducted concerning speech disfluency in normal talkers. Virtually no data are available to document percentage of disfluency and rate of speech of nonstutterers in a speech pathology clinical interview situation. Consequently, it is difficult to compare progress made by stutterers in therapy to normal Speech. The purpose of this study was to identify disfluency levels and rates of speech in young adults while being interviewed and during reading. Fifty undergraduate students (25 male and 25 female) at Southwest Texas State University served as subjects. Each student was tested individually, using ten questions patterned after the interview recommended by Webster (1980b) and while reading a standard clinical passage (Fairbanks, 1960). Percentage of disfluency and rates of speech were obtained for all conditions. Results indicated that, on the average, young adults were disfluent on approximately 3% of words in conversational speech and 1% of words in reading. The majority of disfluencies were interjections and revisions. They spoke and read at approximately 159 and 198 words per minute, respectively. Data from this study can be used to compare the post therapy results of stutterers who participate in Precision Fluency Shaping (1980b) with normal talkers. As a result, a more objective analysis of therapy progress is possible.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

Southwest Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

1985

Author dc:creator

• Lutz, Konnie Clarke

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mallard, A. R.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Hardee, W. Paul
• Wright, Loyd S.

• speech
• speech errors
• interviews

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/20408

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/20408