Iranian Educational Psychology Association Iranian Journal of Learning and Memory 2645-5447 3 9 2020 05 01 Cross-linguistic Gender Differences in EFL Learners’ Pause Frequency and Duration 19 27 114203 10.22034/iepa.2020.239311.1187 EN Zahra Banitalebi Department of Foreign Languages, Yazd University, Iran Ali Akbar Jabbari Department of Foreign Languages, Yazd University, Iran 0000-0001-7094-6676 Mohammad Hasan Razmi Foreign Languages Department, Yazd University 0000-0002-0891-8831 Journal Article 2020 07 27 The present paper sought to investigate gender differences in the speech pauses made by Iranian bilingual (L1: Turkish and L2: Persian) learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). To this end, the pauses made by males and females were compared. Via an Oxford Placement test, a convenient sample of 40 bilingual advanced EFL male and female learners were selected from several English language institutes in Tehran, Iran. Three reading passages (English, Persian, and Turkish) were used to measure students’ fluency in terms of their speech pauses in the texts they read. As learners started to read the passages, their speeches were recorded. The collected data were analyzed by means of Praat Software. The data were analyzed in terms of the frequency and duration of the recorded pauses. The results indicated that that there were not any statistically significant differences between males and females regarding their pause frequency and duration across languages. Accordingly, the results represented more similarity than difference across the groups. The implications of the study results are discussed. https://journal.iepa.ir/article_114203_2e40ff1a64d413205dbde3aea3b761a9.pdf