We often fixate on fluency and achievement of articulation, yet rarely do we venture to study the errors in our speech, the (dis)fluency prevalent in common conversation. Lickley's Disfluency Lab is the prime location for such endeavours. Here we parse through sound files and interpret sonograms. The proximity between each wave can denote a letter or sound, and even the placement of the tongue! Who knew that ordering fries may involve highly advanced thinking and excitation of multiple cognitive levels. Speech can be divided into planning and execution of speech. We are constantly unconsciously and consciously repairing and modifying our speech before it is released. First we must access our semantic memory, facts that are explicitly stored and retrieved. Constructing sentences also requires the lexicon, a highly personalised mental dictionary, to filter through our intended statement and retrieve viable words. Finally, syntax and a phonetic plan is assembled to repair any grammatical and sound errors. Although I have represented this information in chronology, the order of these steps are rather abstract. No wonder it is impossible to achieve absolute fluency, for it requires our impressive cognitive and motor machinery to operate without err.
