Um to Kuan: Cognitive Load and Verbal Fillers in Multilingual Speech

Abstract

Contemporary psycholinguistic paradigms recognize verbal fillers as functional byproducts of cognitive processing and speech planning rather than indicators of poor articulation. This study examines the tension between processing utility and communicative competence by analyzing speech disfluencies and cross-linguistic transfer in second-language academic contexts. Utilizing a descriptive mixed-method design with a dual-stage sampling process, seventy (70) first-year undergraduate students at Ateneo de Zamboanga University were selected from five sections of a Purposive Communication course during classroom oral recitations in the 2025–2026 academic year. Spontaneous classroom speech was recorded and transcribed, while Focus Group Discussions provided qualitative insights into subjective cognitive triggers. Quantitative findings revealed that unlexicalized, non-word verbal fillers predominated in student discourse, with um (frequency of 69) and uh (frequency of 68) emerging as the most frequent disfluencies, whereas lexicalized phrase fillers occurred minimally (frequency of 3). A distinct pattern of cross-linguistic transference under stress was observed through the systematic insertion of localized Filipino and Zamboangueño placeholder tokens, including Ano o (frequency of 9), Ano (frequency of 4), and Kuan o (frequency of 2), into English speech. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed that nervousness and the explicit need for processing time were universally identified by 100 percent of participants as the primary catalysts for these disfluencies. These findings demonstrate that verbal fillers and localized placeholder tokens do not reflect linguistic incompetence or communicative deficits. Instead, they function as essential, adaptive cognitive strategies for floor-holding, lexical retrieval management, and coping with high affective filters during evaluative speech tasks.