Also known in linguistics by the name filler, filled pause, or planner, a hesitation marker is a sound or word that participants in a conversation use to signal that they are pausing to think but are not finished speaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filler_(linguistics)
You can easily recognize and identify common hesitation markers used in spoken English, including um, uh, well, sort of (sorta), kind of (kinda), like, actually, so and you know (ya know).
Students use hesitation markers to improve fluency and confidence when making impromptu speeches on unfamiliar topics.
Richard McDorman has a good exercise (Exercise 3) on using hesitation markers in the classroom. Here’s the exercise, from Tesolblog: http://tesolblog.org/Lesson Plan 1_Richard McDorman.pdf
Presentation Activity 3: Strategies for talking about unfamiliar topics and using hesitation markers (10 minutes)
Next, the instructor will ask students what specific strategies they have for talking about topics that are unfamiliar to them. Do students ever find themselves “stuck” in a conversation because they are unfamiliar with the topic? Do they become frustrated, embarrassed or uncomfortable when they are interacting in English and an unfamiliar topic is brought up? (Let students know that this is a natural response, but that part of the goal of today’s lesson is to provide them with strategies for managing these stressful interactions.)
The instructor will now ask students if they know any English words that they can use to delay or slow down their speech, in order to gain extra time to think about their statements or answers to questions. The instructor will write the words on the whiteboard. If students do not know any such words or do not understand what is being elicited, provide examples of and pre-teach the following hesitation markers commonly used in spoken English:
- um (Um, I’m not sure about that.)
- uh (Uh, could you say that again?) Point out that “um” and “uh” are interchangeable.
- well (Well, um, maybe.)
- sort of (sorta) (I, um, sorta did that once too.)
- kind of (kinda) (I kinda know what you mean.) Point out that “sorta” and “kinda” are usually interchangeable.
- like (Like, uh, can you say that a different way?)
- actually (Actually, I, uh, think I’ve been there before.)
- so (So, do you wanna come with us?)
- you know (ya know) (It’s, like, really important, ya know.)