disfluencies in speech and the patterns they form

This is the link I have been looking for. The psychologist Richard Aslin has been studying disfluency and the regular patterns that ums and ers play in language development.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028095.800-baby-brain-expert-ums-and-ers-help-children-learn.html

I wonder if disfluency plays a role in learning a second language too. Do language teachers give unconscious cues to new vocabulary or information in class? Intonation plays a very important role in this regard but perhaps disfluency may play a role too.

Focus on Intonation (Wikipedia)

Intonation is variation of pitch while speaking which is not used to distinguish words.

All languages use pitch pragmatically, that is, as intonation, for instance for emphasis, to convey surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use pitch to distinguish words in addition to intonation.

Generally speaking, we can identify the following intonations:

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time [↗];

Falling Intonation means that the pitch decreases with time [↘];

Dipping Intonation falls and then rises [↘↗];

Peaking Intonation rises and then falls [↗↘]