Abstract

This study examines the filled pause um used by the English Department students of the State Islamic University of Malang during their oral presentations in the classroom. A filled pause such as um is a linguistic expression used to signal hesitation in its immediate context, with the primary function of bringing the listener's attention to a particular kind of linkage of the upcoming utterance with the immediate discourse context. In achieving the purpose of the study, a total of twenty five oral presentations in English based on different topics were collected and analysed. By using Clark and Tree's (2002) framework on the use of um, the study shows that the filled pause of um played different roles based on the speaker's thoughts on feelings of uncertainty. Furthermore, it is also used in almost all positions of utterances, and each of which brings specific meanings. An um is used at the initial position of an utterance to show readiness to open a new sentence, topic, or point of a presentation, to express awkwardness, and to show respect to others. In the middle of an utterance, it is used to detect a problem, to struggle, to find upcoming words, and to restart a conversation. Finally, in the final position of the utterance, it is used as a result of agnosia and to close a presentation. Future research could make use of the findings from the present study to examine the use of filled pauses based on different characteristics among speakers to find out other different functions of filled pauses especially in EFL classroom presentations.