- Coding Fluency (or dysfluency)
The following sections detail the coding scheme for various dysfluencies, such as repairs, fillers (filled pauses) and pseudo-filled pauses, and unfilled pauses (i.e., silence). The coding scheme is based on Bui and Huang (2016).
2.1 Coding Repairs
The following table summarizes the major codes for disturbed utterances.
| * | repetition |
| ~ | reformulation, morphological adjustments, correction/adjustment in pronunciation
If a false-start is repaired, use this code instead of #. |
| # | false-start: total abandonment unrepaired, see ~ |
| @ | partial word, equivalent to &yyy in CHAT
sh@ rpl he fun@ * funfair (code as partial word otherwise TP counts “fun” as one word) |
| $ | drawling, equivalent to yyy: in CHAT
now he$ is decorating his tree . |
| rpl | replacement |
- A mid-clause pause longer than 0.5 sec is counted as dysfluency pause and must be indicated in the transcription, using this format: (1.09)
- CALF uses the %snd lines to calculate between AS-unit pauses. So do NOT indicate between unit pauses. I haven’t tried but CALF may count those as mid-clause or between-clause pauses.
- CALF accepts codes in the initial position:
%STU: he pick up a clut@
%STU: how to say?
%STU: * clut@ ~ golf clut@.
2.2 Fillers and Pseudo-filled Pauses
(1) CALF only recognizes fillers in the form of “er”. In other words, fillers in any phonological variations, such as uhm, should all be coded only as “er” in the txt file so as to ensure consistency and accurately tally all the fillers.
(2) Coder can freely define pseudo filled pauses because CALF only looks for “_pfp”.
Here is a list of pfp for your reference:
| pseudo filled pauses |
| yeah_pfp |
| yes_pfp |
| well_pfp |
| maybe_pfp (Chinese learners) |
| so_pfp |
| sort_of_pfp |
| kind_of_pfp |
| you_know_pfp |
| actually_pfp (Chinese learners) |
| like_pfp |
| what_pfp |
2.3 Unfilled pauses (silence)
In accordance with the literature (E.g., Bui & Huang, 2016; Foster & Skehan, 1996), silence of or longer than 0.4 seconds is counted as a pause. For any such pauses in the utterance, use a parenthesized time to indicate the duration of the pause. For example:
I was going to uh walk to school (0.58) yesterday.
2.4 Timing
Timing goes to the third line in the four-tier block, %snd. It is formatted as the following example:
%snd: <02:36:22><02:45:34>
The above indicates the duration of that AS unit in that block.
*CALF accepts the %snd: line as long as the format is correct. It cannot tell, for instance, the starting time of an utterance is before the ending time of the previous one.
Reference:
Bui, G., & Huang, Z. (2016 online). L2 fluency as influenced by content familiarity and planning: Performance, methodology and pedagogy. Language Teaching Research. doi: 10.1177/1362168816656650