Speech Dysfluency and Popular Fillers - IELTS Reading Sample with Explanation
IELTS Reading is the second section of the exam. The test will include a reading passage based on which answers are to be provided by the test takers. The different types of IELTS reading questions that are included in this section are:
- True/False/Not Given
- Matching Information
- Choosing the correct option
Below is a sample IELTS reading passage “Speech Dysfluency and Popular Fillers”. The passage contains question types as mentioned above. The article also includes solutions as well as explanations for these.
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Section 1
Read the passage below to answer the following questions
Speech Dysfluency and Popular Fillers IELTS Reading Sample
A speech dysfluency is any of various breaks, irregularities or sound-filled pauses that we make when we are speaking, which are commonly known as fillers. These include words and sentences that are not finished, repeated phrases or syllables, instances of speakers correcting their own mistakes as they speak and "words" such as 'huh', 'uh', 'erm', 'urn', 'hmm', 'err', 'like', 'you know' and 'well'.
Fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognised as meaningful and they include speech problems, such as stuttering (repeating the first consonant of some words). Fillers are normally avoided on television and films, but they occur quite regularly in everyday conversation, sometimes making up more than 20% of "words" in speech. But they can also be used as a pause for thought.
Research in linguistics has shown that fillers change across cultures and that even the different English speaking nations use different fillers. For example, Americans use pauses such as 'um' or 'em' whereas the British say 'uh' or 'eh'. Spanish speakers say 'ehhh' and in Latin America (where they also speak Spanish) but not Spain, 'este' is used (normally meaning 'this').
Recent linguistic research has suggested that the use of 'uh' and 'um' in English is connected to the speaker's mental and emotional state. For example, while pausing to say 'uh' or 'um' the brain may be planning the use of future words. According to the University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman, 'um' generally comes before a longer or more important pause than 'uh'. At least that's what he used to think.
Liberman has discovered that as Americans get older, they use 'uh' more than 'um' and that men use 'uh' more than women no matter their age. But the opposite is true of 'um'. The young say 'um' more often than the old. And women say 'um' more often than men at every age. This was an unexpected result because scientists used to think that fillers had to do more with the amount of time a speaker pauses for, rather than with who the speaker is.
Liberman mentioned his finding to fellow linguists in the Netherlands and this encouraged the group to look for a pattern outside American English. They studied British and Scottish English, German, Danish, Dutch and Norwegian and found that women and younger people said 'um' more than 'uh' in those languages as well.
Their conclusion is that it is simply a case of language change in progress and that women and younger people are leading the change. And there is nothing strange about this. Women and young people normally are the typical pioneers of most language change. What is strange, however, is that 'um' is replacing 'uh' across at least two continents and five Germanic languages. Now this really is a mystery.
The University of Edinburgh sociolinguist Josef Fruehwald may have an answer. In his view, 'um' and 'uh' are pretty much equivalent. The fact that young people and women prefer it is not significant. This often happens in language when there are two options. People start using one more often until the other is no longer an option. It’s just one of those things.
As to how such a trend might have gone from one language to another, there is a simple explanation, according to Fruehwald. English is probably influencing the other languages. We all know that in many countries languages are constantly borrowing words and expressions of English into their own language so why not borrow fillers, too? Of course, we don't know for a fact whether that's actually what's happening with 'um' but it is a likely story.
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Section 2
Solutions and Explanation
Questions 27-34
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?
For questions 27-34, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN If there is no information on this
- Fillers are usually expressed as pauses and probably have no linguistic meaning although they may have a purpose.
- In general, fillers vary across cultures.
- Fillers are uncommon in everyday language.
- American men use ‘uh’ more than American women do.
- Younger Spaniards say ‘ehhh’ more often than older Spaniards.
- In the past linguists did not think that fillers are about the amount of time a speaker hesitates.
- During a coffee break Liberman was chatting with a small group of researchers.
- Fruehwald does not believe that there are age and gender differences related to ‘um’ and ‘uh’.
- Answer: TRUE
Supporting Sentence: fillers are parts of speech which are not generally recognised as meaningful and they include speech problems, such as stuttering.
Keyword: fillers are parts of speech
Keyword Location: paragraph B
Explanation: As stated in the paragraph 2 fillers are a part of the speech that do not have a specific meaning, rather denotes speech problems like stuttering. Thus statement 27 is TRUE.
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- Answer: TRUE
Supporting Sentence: researcher in linguistics has shown that fillers change across cultures and that even the different English speaking nations use different fillers.
Keyword: researcher in linguistics
Keyword Location: paragraph C
Explanation: Yes, the third paragraph clearly states that Fillers across different cultures. When comparing the fillers used in United States, UK, Latin America, the most frequently used fillers are ‘um’, ‘eh’,’este’ respectively.
- Answer: FALSE
Supporting Sentence: fillers are normally avoided on television and films, but they occur quite regularly in everyday conversation, sometimes making up more than 20% of ‘words’ in speech.
Keyword: fillers are normally avoided on television and films
Keyword Location: paragraph B
Explanation: The statement is not true as it is stated in paragraph 2 that fillers make up at least 20 per cent of words of everyday conversations. They may be avoided in television or films but are certainly are a part of our daily conversations. Sometimes they also denote the pause for thought.
- Answer: TRUE
Supporting Sentence: Liberman has discovered that as Americans get older, they use ‘uh’ more than ‘um’ and that men use ‘uh’ more than women no matter their age.
Keyword: ‘um’ and that men use ‘uh’
Keyword Location: paragraph E
Explanation: The statement above is true as per paragraph 5 Lieberman a linguistic in University of Pennsylvania, research stated that American men spoke or ‘uh’ more than American women.
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- Answer: NOT GIVEN
- Answer: FALSE
Supporting Sentence: this was an unexpected result because scientists used to think that fillers had to do with the amount of time a speaker pauses for, rather than with who the speaker is.
Keyword: unexpected result, amount of time a speaker pauses
Keyword Location: paragraph E
Explanation: As indicated in paragraph 5, the statement is untrue as earlier scientists used to think that the usage of fillers was dependent more when the speaker pauses during a conversation rather than who the speaker was, be it men or women.
- Answer: NOT GIVEN
- Answer: FALSE
Supporting Sentence: the University of Edinburgh sociolinguist Josef Fruehwald may have an answer, In his view, ‘um’ and ‘uh’ are pretty much equivalent. The fact that young people and women prefer it is not significant.
Keyword: young people and women prefer it is not significant
Keyword Location: paragraph H
Explanation: Yes, as stated in paragraph 8, Josef Fruehwald suggested that women and young people prefer ‘um’ than ‘uh’ as there are multiple options. If more people start using a particular filler the other one would fade away eventually.
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Questions 35-40
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.
- Fillers are not
- used to give the speaker time to think.
- phrases that are restated.
- used across cultures.
- popular with the media.
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: fillers are normally avoided on television and films, but they occur quite regularly in everyday conversation.
Keyword: avoided on television and films
Keyword Location: paragraph B
Explanation: The statement matches with the Option D as stated in paragraph 2, fillers are not that common in Television and Films. It is more prominent in our daily conversations.
- It had originally seemed to Mark Liberman that
- 'um' was followed by a less significant pause than 'uh'.
- 'uh' was followed by a shorter pause than 'um'.
- 'uh' was followed by a longer pause than 'um'.
- the use of 'um' meant the speaker was sensitive.
Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: according to the University of Pennsylvania linguist Mark Liberman, ‘um’ generally comes before a longer or more important pause than ‘uh.’ At least that’s what he used to think.
Keyword: longer or more important pause
Keyword Location: paragraph D
Explanation: As stated in paragraph 4, Mark Liberman initially thought that the usage of ‘um’ was before a longer or a more important pause than ‘uh’. Thus, option B is correctly matched with the statement above.
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- Contrary to what linguists used to think, it is now believed that the choice of filler
- may have led to disagreements.
- depends on the characteristics of the speaker.
- has nothing to do with sex.
- only matters to older people.
Answer: B
Supporting Sentence: the young say ‘um’ more often than the old. And women say ‘um’ more often than men at every age. This was an unexpected result because scientists used to think that fillers had to do more with the amount of time a speaker pauses for, rather than with who the speaker is.
Keyword: unexpected result, speaker pauses
Keyword Location: paragraph E
Explanation: The statement has been correctly matched with option B as in the entire passage even though there were different speculations regarding the usage of fillers; it is pretty evident that some filler are more popular among young people, women and men respectively.
- According to Liberman, it's still a puzzle why
- a specific language change is so widely spread.
- the two fillers are comparable.
- we have two options.
- 'um' is preferred by women and young people.
Answer: A
Supporting Sentence: what is strange, however, is that ‘um’ is replacing ‘uh’ across at least two continents and five Germanic languages. Now, this really is a mystery.
Keyword: five Germanic languages
Keyword Location: paragraph G
Explanation: As stated in Paragraph 7, ‘um’ and ‘uh’ are replacing in at least 2 continents and 4-5 Germanic Languages, which is a complete mystery as to why this is happening.
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- Concerning the normal changes that all languages go through as time goes by,
- old men are impossible to teach.
- men in general are very conservative.
- young men simply copy the speech of young women.
- women play a more important role than men.
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: their conclusion is that it is simply a case of language change in progress and that women and younger people are leading the change. Women and young people normally are the typical pioneers of most language change.
Keyword: Women and young people
Keyword Location: Paragraph G
Explanation: The above statement is correctly matched with option D as indicated in paragraph 7 language change is led by young people and men.
- According to Fruehwald, the fact that 'um' is used more than 'uh'
- proves that 'um' is less important.
- shows that young people have low standards.
- shows that they have different meanings.
- is just a coincidence.
Answer: D
Supporting Sentence: the young say ‘um’ more often than the old. And women say ‘um’ more often than men at every age. This was an unexpected result because scientists used to think that fillers had to do more with the amount of time a speaker pauses for, rather than with who the speaker is.
Keyword: unexpected result, speaker pauses
Keyword Location: Paragraph H
Explanation: The statement is correctly matched with option D as usage of ‘um’ rather than ‘uh’ is merely a coincidence as stated by Fruehwald in paragraph 8. It is due to multiple options available. One of these might supersede the other with time.
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