The Pedagogy of Hesitation: Why Pauses, Silence, and Broken Speech Matter in ELT

Abstract

This paper examines the overlooked yet important phenomenon of hesitation, silence, and fragmented speech in English Language Teaching (ELT). While traditional pedagogy in the field of ELT considers fluency to imply seamless, quick, and error-free speech, any kind of hesitation and silence is taken as evidence of the learner’s deficiency. The need of the hour is a comprehensive paradigm shift in ELT. Through the use of discourse analysis in the classroom, the cognitive principles of linguistics, as well as the sociolinguistic perspective of the discipline, this paper seeks to introduce the concept of “The Pedagogy of Hesitation.” This concept recognises the important aspects of language acquisition, including silence and fragmented speech. This paper aims to recognise the important role of hesitation in ELT and to use this phenomenon as a positive means of enhancing learner confidence and students' linguistic competence.