Factors Influencing Intelligibility and Comprehensibility: A Critical Review of Research on Second Language English Speakers

The varieties of English have led to the paradigm of Global Englishes, which describes the ideologies of English as a lingua franca (ELF) and World Englishes (differential uses of English internationally) in diverse sociolinguistic contexts. Global Englishes literature complicates intelligibility and comprehensibility since it tends to problematize “native norms” as the only benchmarks for successful lingua franca use. Intelligibility and comprehensibility studies have recently been concerned with the interaction between non-native speakers using English as a second language for communication. Thus, this paper critically evaluates research on intelligibility and comprehensibility of second language (L2) English speakers. It is observed that various speaker, listener, and contextual factors may affect intelligibility and comprehensibility. Based on the influencing factors, this paper also makes several recommendations for how intelligibility and comprehensibility can be improved. It is suggested that further research is needed for L2 instruction that may be promising for improving intelligibility and comprehensibility

English as a lingua franca: mutual intelligibility of Chinese, Dutch and American speakers of English

English has become the language of international communication. As a result of this development, we are now confronted with a bewildering variety of ‘Englishes’, spoken with non-native accents. Research determining how intelligible non-native speakers of varying native-language backgrounds are to each other and to native speakers of English has only just started to receive attention. This thesis investigated to what extent Chinese, Dutch and American speakers of English are mutually intelligible. Intelligibility of vowels, simplex consonants and consonant clusters was tested in meaningless sound sequences, as well as in words in meaningless and meaningful short sentences. Speakers (one male, one female per language background) were selected so as to be optimally representative of their peer groups, which were made up of young academic users of English. Intelligibility was tested for all nine combinations of speaker and listener backgrounds. Results show that Chinese-accented English is less intelligible overall than Dutch-accented English, which is less intelligible than American English. Generally, the native-language background of the speaker was less important for the intelligibility than the background of the listener. Also, the results reveal a clear and consistent so-called interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit: speakers of English – whether foreign or native – are more intelligible to listeners with whom they share the native-language background than to listeners with a different native language.LEI Universiteit LeidenChina Scholarship Council; Leids Universiteits FondsTheoretical and Experimental Linguistic

The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit as bias toward native-language phonology

Two hypotheses have been advanced in the recent literature with respect to the so-called Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB): a nonnative speaker will be better understood by a another nonnative listener than a native speaker of the target language will be (a) only when the nonnatives share the same native language (matched interlanguage) or (b) even when the nonnatives have different mother tongues (non-matched interlanguage). Based on a survey of published experimental materials, the present article will demonstrate that both the restricted (a) and the generalized (b) hypotheses are false when the ISIB effect is evaluated in terms of absolute intelligibility scores.We will then propose a simple way to compute a relative measure for the ISIB (R-ISIB), which we claim is a more insightful way of evaluating the interlanguage benefit, and test the hypotheses in relative (R-ISIB) terms on the same literature data. We then find that our R-ISIB measure only supports the more restricted hypothesis (a) while rejecting the more general hypothesis (b). This finding shows that the native language shared by the interactants biases the listener toward interpreting sounds in terms of the phonology of the shared mother tongue.Theoretical and Experimental Linguistic

Perception and production of Mandarin-Accented English: The effect of degree of Accentedness on the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit for Listeners (ISIB-L) and Talkers (ISIB-T)

Previous research on the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) indicates nonnative listeners may have an advantage at understanding nonnative speech of talkers with the same first language (L1) due to shared interlanguage knowledge. The present study offers a comprehensive analysis of various factors that may modulate this advantage, including the proficiency of both the listeners and the talkers, the mapping of phonemes between the L1 and second language (L2), and the acoustic properties of the phones. Accuracy scores on a lexical decision task were used to investigate both native English listeners’ and native Mandarin learners’ of English perception of native English and Mandarin-accented English speech. Results show clear ISIB-L and ISIB-T effects and demonstrate the dynamic nature of ISIB effects, with both being modulated by speaker and listener proficiency. More striking ISIB effects typically occur at the most extreme ends of accentedness. Additionally, an advantage for common-phoneme over unique-phoneme words in nonnative speech was observed. While nonnative productions of common-phoneme words are more accurate than those of unique-phoneme words, for the most accented productions, nonnative listeners are faster to respond to these unique, often mispronounced, productions. The nonnative listener advantage at perceiving nonnative speech depends on various factors, including listener proficiency, speaker proficiency, phoneme characteristics, and the acoustics of specific speech tokens

Attitudes towards foreign accents among adult multilingual language users

The present study investigates inter-individual variation (linked to personality traits, multilingualism and sociobiographical variables) in the attitudes that 2035 multilinguals have of their own and others’ Foreign Accent (FA). Data were collected through an on-line questionnaire. We found that extraverted multilinguals, who were emotionally stable and tolerant of ambiguity were significantly less bothered by the FA of others. Only more neurotic multilinguals were bothered by their own FA. Unexpectedly, participants who knew more languages to a higher level were more negative about the FA of others and their own. However, participants who grew up in an ethnically diverse environment, who had lived abroad and who were working in an ethically diverse environment were significantly more positive about FA. While sex had no effect on the attitudes towards the FA of others, women had a more negative attitude towards their own FA. Education level and age were also linked to attitudes towards FA. The findings thus show that how much multilinguals are bothered by FA falls partly outside their conscious control as it depends on their personality, their language learning history, their current linguistic practices and their sociobiographical background

Ocke-Schwen Bohn and Murray J. Munro (eds) (2007): Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning: In Honor of James Emile Flege, Language learning and language teaching monograph series, volume 17, Amsterdam, John Benjamins

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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACOUSTIC FEATURES OF SECOND LANGUAGE SPEECH AND LISTENER EVALUATION OF SPEECH QUALITY

Second language (L2) speech is typically less fluent than native speech, and differs from it phonetically. While the speech of some L2 English speakers seems to be easily understood by native listeners despite the presence of a foreign accent, other L2 speech seems to be more demanding, such that listeners must expend considerable effort in order to understand it. One reason for this increased difficulty may simply be the speaker’s pronunciation accuracy or phonetic intelligibility. If a L2 speaker’s pronunciations of English sounds differ sufficiently from the sounds that native listeners expect, these differences may force native listeners to work much harder to understand the divergent speech patterns. However, L2 speakers also tend to differ from native ones in terms of fluency – the degree to which a speaker is able to produce appropriately structured phrases without unnecessary pauses, self-corrections or restarts. Previous studies have shown that measures of fluency are strongly predictive of listeners’ subjective ratings of the acceptability of L2 speech: Less fluent speech is consistently considered less acceptable (Ginther, Dimova, & Yang, 2010). However, since less fluent speakers tend also to have less accurate pronunciations, it is unclear whether or how these factors might interact to influence the amount of effort listeners exert to understand L2 speech, nor is it clear how listening effort might relate to perceived quality or acceptability of speech. In this dissertation, two experiments were designed to investigate these questions

Interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit for non-native listeners of english

Màster de Lingüística Aplicada i Adquisició de Llengües en Contextos Multilingües, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, Universitat de Barcelona, Any: 2012, Supervisor: Dr. Joan Carles Mora BonillaThere are different factors that influence speech intelligibility, including properties of the speech itself, the listeners‟ linguistic backgrounds and their familiarity with different speech varieties. Regarding the latter, an interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) was hypothesized, which predicts that non-native listeners find speech with a familiar accent more in-telligible than native speech. This study examines whether non-native listeners of English show an ISIB due to a familiar accent and their proficiency in English. Therefore, the intelligibility of six speakers differing in L1 (English, Catalan and German) was assessed by 50 listeners differing in L1 (English, Catalan and German) and proficiency in English (high and low). Reaction time was used to detect differences in intelligibility, which is more sensitive than intelligibility measures used in other studies. Results show that, no matter of the L1, for non-native low proficiency listeners, utterances produced by speakers with a familiar accent were more intelligible than native English speech (ISIB-T). Familiar accented non-native English was more intelligible to high profi-ciency non-native listeners than to native English listeners (ISIB-L). In con-clusion, the L1 as well as the proficiency in the target language are crucial factors in intelligibility and more depending on the latter listeners show dif-ferent types of ISIB

Korean EFL Learners Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit: Focusing on English Phrasal Verbs

학위논문(석사)--서울대학교 대학원 :사범대학 외국어교육과(영어전공),2019. 8. 안현기.원어민의 발화보다 비원어민의 발화가 동일한 L1을 사용하는 비원어민의 청자에게 더 쉽게 인지되는 현상을 가리켜 Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB)라고 한다 (Bent & Bradlow, 2003). ISIB는 이후 ISIB-T와 ISIB-L이라는 두 가지 하위 유형으로 정교하게 세분되었다 (Hayes-Harb et al., 2008). 그간, ISIB에 대해 많은 연구가 수행되어 왔지만, 일관성 있는 결과를 보여주지는 못했다. 일부 연구는 ISIB효과를 입증했지만, 다른 연구들은 그렇지 못했거나 매우 제한된 증거만을 발견했을 뿐이다. 이렇듯, 일관성이 결여된 결과는 다양한 언어 배경이 ISIB 연구에 영향을 미친다는 사실을 암시해준다. 따라서 본 연구는 ISIB 효과를 분명하게 검증하기 위해, 한국인 EFL 학습자들을 대상으로 연구를 진행했다. 나아가, ISIB에 대한 보다 명확한 이해를 위해, 본 연구는 화자에 대한 발음이개도(ISIB-T)와 청자에 대한 발음이개도(ISIB-L)를 구별된 현상으로 다루어 연구하는 것을 주된 목적으로 삼았다. 약모음이 포함된 구동사 중에서 전사 과업에 사용될 고빈도 구동사 10개를 선택해, 영어 원어민 화자, 고능숙도 수준의 한국인 비원어민 화자, 저능숙도 수준의 한국인 비원어민 화자를 발화 문장 수집을 위해 모집하였다. 실험에 참여할 청자 그룹으로, 영어 원어민 청자, 고능숙도 수준의 한국인 비원어민 청자, 저능숙도 수준의 한국인 비원어민 청자가 모집되었다. ISIB-T와 ISIB-L에 있어서 화자와 청자의 능숙도 수준이 미치는 영향력을 살펴보기 위해, 실험결과를 능숙도 수준에 따라 일원배치 분산분석(ANOVA)으로 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 영어 원어민 화자에 의한 발화가 한국인 비원어민에 의한 발화보다, 한국인 비원어민 청자들에게 높은 이해도를 보이는 것으로 드러나, ISIB-T 효과는 입증되지 않았다. 한국인 비원어민의 발화 역시 한국인 비원어민 청자보다는 영어 원어민 화자에게 더 높은 이해도를 보여 ISIB-L 효과 또한 검증되지 않았다. 화자와 청자의 능숙도 수준을 고려했을 때, 이러한 결과는 한국인 비원어민 화자와 청자의 능숙도 수준에 영향을 받지 않는다는 사실이 발견되었다. 본 연구의 발견은 한국인 EFL 학습자들이 발음이개도에 있어서 중간언어를 활용하지 않는다는 것을 암시한다. 하지만, 한국인 비원어민 청자가 영어 원어민 청자와 큰 차이를 보이지는 않았다는 점을 고려할 때, 한국인 EFL 학습자들이 L2에 대한 능숙도 수준을 향상시킴으로써 발음이개도를 개선할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다. 그러므로, 약모음을 포함한 구동사를 한국인 EFL 학습자들에게 명시적으로 가르칠 필요성이 대두된다. 이와 함께, 상호간의 이해도를 높이기 위해 구동사를 연습할 풍부한 기회를 제공할 필요가 있겠다.The phenomenon that non-native talkers speech is as intelligible as or even more intelligible than native talkers speech to non-native listeners who share the same L1 is referred to as Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) (Bent & Bradlow, 2003). Later, ISIB has been further developed into two refined types: ISIB-T (ISIB for Talkers) and ISIB-L (ISIB for Listeners) (Hayes-Harb, Smith, Bent, & Bradlow, 2008). Although there have been a majority of studies on ISIB, the results have been inconsistent. While some studies found evidence for ISIB, others found no or only limited evidence. Such mixed results suggest that a variety of language backgrounds may influence the effect of ISIB. This study, therefore, investigated if more definite evidence for ISIB was found in Korean EFL learners. In order to figure out more clearly the patterns of intelligibility, the main purpose of this research was to investigate ISIB-T and ISIB-L as separate phenomena. Among phrasal verbs with reduced vowels, 10 phrasal verbs with high frequency were selected as stimuli in a transcription task. Three talkers, consisting of one native English talker, one non-native Korean talker of high proficiency and one non-native Korean talker of low proficiency, were recruited for speech samples. Three groups of listeners, composed of native English listeners, non-native Korean listeners of high proficiency, and non-native Korean listeners of low proficiency, participated in this study. To explore the influence of non-native talker and listener proficiency levels on ISIB-T and ISIB-L, results were separately analyzed by the proficiency levels of the talkers and the listeners in the one-way ANOVA. The results revealed that the native English talkers speech was more intelligible to the non-native Korean listeners than the non-native Korean talkers speech (i.e., no ISIB-T effect). In addition, the non-native Korean talkers speech was more intelligible to the native English listeners than to the non-native Korean listeners (i.e., no ISIB-L effect). When proficiency levels were taken into account, it was found that such results were not influenced by the proficiency levels of the non-native Korean talkers and listeners. The findings suggest that Korean EFL learners have not taken advantage of interlanguage benefit. However, considering that the non-native Korean listeners showed no significant differences from the native English listeners, it can be expected that Korean EFL learners can benefit from interlanguage by improving their L2 proficiency levels. Phrasal verbs with reduced vowels, therefore, should be explicitly instructed to Korean EFL learners and abundant opportunities to practice them need to be provided in order to improve mutual intelligibility among non-native speakers as well as intelligibility between native speakers and non-native speakers.Abstract i Table of Contents ⅳ List of Tables ⅵ List of Figures ⅵ Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Background and Purpose of the Study 1 1.2 Research Questions 5 1.3 Organization of the Thesis 6 Chapter 2. Literature Review 7 2.1 Second Language Speech Perception and Intelligibility 7 2.2 The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit 9 2.2.1 Research on ISIB 9 2.2.2 Research on ISIB-T and ISIB-L 12 2.3 The Intelligibility in English Phrasal Verbs with Reduced Vowels 16 Chapter 3. Methodology 20 3.1 Materials 20 3.1.1 Talkers for Collecting Voice Recordings 20 3.1.1.1 Foreign Accentedness Judgment Task 21 3.1.2 Stimuli 23 3.2 Participants 25 3.2.1 Native English Listeners 25 3.2.2 Non-native Korean Listeners 26 3.2.2.1 Listening Test for Rating Proficiency Levels 27 3.3 Procedure 28 3.3.1 Transcription Task 28 3.3.2 Word Familiarity Test 29 3.4 Data Analysis 30 3.4.1 Transcription Task Analysis 30 3.4.2 Word Familiarity Test Analysis 30 Chapter 4. Results and Discussion 31 4.1 Word Familiarity Test Analysis 31 4.2 Transcription Accuracy Analysis 33 4.2.1 ISIB-T by Talker and Listener Proficiency 36 4.2.2 ISIB-L by Talker and Listener Proficiency 39 4.3 Discussion on ISIB-T and ISIB-L 42 4.3.1 Influences of Proficiency on ISIB-T and ISIB-L 42 4.3.2 Considerations of Familiarity on ISIB 45 4.3.3 Influences of L1 and Transfer on ISIB 48 Chapter 5. Conclusion 50 5.1 Summary of Major Findings and Pedagogical Implications 50 5.2 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research 52 References 54 Appendices 61 Appendix A: Foreign Accentedness Judgment Task 61 Appendix B: Language Background Questionnaire for the Native English Listeners 62 Appendix C: Language Background Questionnaire for the Non-native Korean Listeners 63 Appendix D: Listening Test for Rating Proficiency Levels 64 Appendix E: A Transcription Task 65 Appendix F: Word Familiarity Test 66 국 문 초 록 67Maste

Linguistic processing of accented speech across the lifespan.

In most of the world, people have regular exposure to multiple accents. Therefore, learning to quickly process accented speech is a prerequisite to successful communication. In this paper, we examine work on the perception of accented speech across the lifespan, from early infancy to late adulthood. Unfamiliar accents initially impair linguistic processing by infants, children, younger adults, and older adults, but listeners of all ages come to adapt to accented speech. Emergent research also goes beyond these perceptual abilities, by assessing links with production and the relative contributions of linguistic knowledge and general cognitive skills. We conclude by underlining points of convergence across ages, and the gaps left to face in future work