Common Speech Disfluencies among Grade 12 Academic Track Students: A Content Analysis of Extemporaneous Speeches

This study explored and described the common types of speech disfluency observed among the Grade 12 academic track of a public secondary school.Further, this study made use of a mixedmethods research design, wherein the frequency of the occurrence of speech disfluency among the respondents is measured for the quantitative data, and utilized the conceptual content analysis to describe the types of speech disfluencies occurring among the student speakers for the qualitative data.Additionally, the results obtained from the recorded extemporaneous speech of the respondents revealed the commonly recurring speech disfluencies as Interjection, Blocks, Prolongation, Revision, Code Switching, Word Repetition, Restart, Stuttering, Phrase Repetition, and Syllable Repetition, with Interjection gaining the highest percentage of frequency, and Syllable Repetition as the least.In relation to this, it has been observed that most of the interruptions in speech occur due to the linguistic difficulty and anxiety that the speaker faces during the speech delivery.Hence, to address this concern, the Department of Education may limit the population in class, provide adequate facilities such as classrooms, and hire more competent teachers to ensure that effective teaching and learning processes occur in schools.Future researchers may delve into a study regarding the proficiency of teachers in teaching and developing the speaking skills of the students.