The present study examines the relationship between second language (L2) proficiency andpausing patterns (i.e., pause duration, frequency, and distribution) in the speech of 30 Russianspeakers of English performing two oral tasks—a topic narrative and a cartoondescription—in Russian and in English. The subjects were divided into two oral Englishproficiency groups, high and intermediate, on the basis of a standardized test of spoken English.Baseline data were collected from a control group of 20 native English speakers. Statisticalanalyses were performed to determine: (a) the native norms of pause duration, frequency, anddistribution for Russian and English on the two experimental tasks; (b) the effect of the level ofL2 proficiency (high and intermediate) on the pausing of Russian speakers in English; and (c) thedifferences or similarities in pausing exhibited by native English speakers and native Russianspeakers (with two different levels of English proficiency) when speaking English. The results ofthis study indicate that English and Russian informal monologue speech can be characterized ashaving different pausing conventions, thus suggesting that crosslinguistic differences involve,among many other aspects, contrasts in pausing patterns. Additionally, L2 proficiency was foundto affect the pause duration of advanced nonnative speakers in that they were able to adjust theduration of their pauses in English to produce a nativelike pausing norm. It was also found thateven highly proficient L2 speakers pause more frequently in their L2 than in their first language(L1). The examination of pause distribution patterns suggests that persons of intermediate to highL2 speaking proficiency make the same number of within-constituent pauses as native speakers.Overall, the findings of this study support the view that adherence to the target language pausingnorms may lead to the perception of nonnative speech as more fluent and nativelike. The findingsalso highlight the importance of exposing L2 students to a richer variety of situations thatillustrate native patterns of verbal communication.