This book explores the concept of disfluency in speech production,
particularly as it occurs in the context of second language acquisition.
Drawing on examples from learner speech at three levels (beginner,
intermediate and advanced), the author argues that acquiring target
language norms for performing disfluency is essential to an individual
being recognized as fluent in a language by fellow-speakers. Starting
with a survey of the psycholinguistic research in this area, he then
applies a sociolinguistic lens to examine how a learner's social and
educational background impacts the types of disfluencies in their
speech. This book will be of interest to readers in fields such as
(applied) linguistics and second language acquisition, psychology and
education.