Disentangling accent from comprehensibility

The goal of this study was to determine which linguistic aspects of second language speech are related to accent and which to comprehensibility. To address this goal, 19 different speech measures in the oral productions of 40 native French speakers of English were examined in relation to accent and comprehensibility, as rated by 60 novice raters and three experienced teachers. Results showed that both constructs were associated with many speech measures, but that accent was uniquely related to aspects of phonology, including rhythm and segmental and syllable structure accuracy, while comprehensibility was chiefly linked to grammatical accuracy and lexical richness

ESL speakers\u27 production of English lexical stress: The effect of variation in acoustic correlates on perceived intelligibility and nativeness

Non-native speakers of English often experience problems in pronunciation as they are learning English, many such problems persisting even when the speaker has achieved a high degree of fluency. Research has shown that for a non-native speaker to sound most natural and intelligible in his or her second language, the speaker must acquire proper prosody, such as native-like speech rhythms (Tajima et al., 1997; Wenk, 1985; Wennerstrom, 2001). This dissertation investigates how native English and Spanish ESL (English as a Second Language) speakers compare in their production of three acoustic correlates of lexical stress in English, namely the relative durations of stressed and unstressed vowels and their relative intensities and fundamental frequency (F0) values. A set of three-syllable words, including cognates and non-cognates, was analyzed. The results from the production study were used to design a listening task that investigated how the ESL speakers varying productions of these acoustic cues affected native English listeners\u27 perception of their speech intelligibility and nativeness. The ESL speakers produced a wider range of values than did the native speakers for all three acoustic correlates. The ESL and native speakers differed statistically in their productions of Spanish/English cognates with different stress patterns in each language and often differed on non-cognates. The ESL group produced the most native-like patterns in cognates with the same stress pattern in each language. The stimuli for the listening task were words recorded by native English participants and subsequently modified to emulate the production of the acoustic correlates of lexical stress by the ESL speakers. Listeners\u27 ratings of speech intelligibility were statistically higher for words in which intensity was increased on the vowel that is expected to receive lexical stress compared to the adjacent unstressed vowel. Increasing vowel duration on the unstressed vowel led to statistically lower ratings of both intelligibility and nativeness. This dissertation contributes to a small body of research regarding the production of prosody in second language speech. The results suggest that a speaker\u27s prosody alone can influence a native listener\u27s perception of speech intelligibility and nativeness

Native Speaker Perceptions of Accented Speech: The English Pronunciation of Macedonian EFL Learners

The paper reports on the results of a study that aimed to describe the vocalic and consonantal features of the English pronunciation of Macedonian EFL learners as perceived by native speakers of English and to find out whether native speakers who speak different standard variants of English perceive the same segments as non-native. A specially designed computer web application was employed to gather two types of data: a) quantitative (frequency of segment variables and global foreign accent ratings on a 5-point scale), and b) qualitative (open-ended questions). The result analysis points out to three most frequent markers of foreign accent in the English speech of Macedonian EFL learners: final obstruent devoicing, vowel shortening and substitution of English dental fricatives with Macedonian dental plosives. It also reflects additional phonetic aspects poorly explained in the available reference literature such as allophonic distributional differences between the two languages and intonational mismatch

An exploratory study of foreign accent and phonological awareness in Korean learners of English

Communication in a second or multiple languages has become essential in the globalized world. However, acquiring a second language (L2) after a critical period is universally acknowledged to be challenging (Lenneberg, 1967). Late learners hardly reach a nativelike level in L2, particularly in its pronunciation, and their incomplete phonological acquisition is manifested by a foreign accent—a common and persistent feature of otherwise fluent L2 speech. Although foreign-accented speech is widespread, it has been a target of social constraints in L2-speaking communities, causing many learners and instructors to seek out ways to reduce foreign accents. Accordingly, research in L2 speech has unceasingly examined various learner-external and learner-internal factors of the occurrence of foreign accents as well as nonnative speech characteristics underlying the judgment of the degree of foreign accents. The current study aimed to expand the understanding of the characteristics and judgments of foreign accents by investigating phonological awareness, a construct pertinent to learners’ phonological knowledge, which has received little attention in research on foreign accents. The current study was exploratory and non-experimental research that targeted 40 adults with Korean-accented English living in the United States. The study first examined how 23 raters speaking American English as their native language detect, perceive, describe, and rate Korean-accented English. Through qualitative and quantitative analyses of the accent perception data, the study identified various phonological and phonetic deviations from the nativelike sounds, which largely result from the influence of first language (Korean) on L2 (English). The study then probed the relationship between foreign accents and learners’ awareness of the phonological system of L2, which was measured using production, perception, and verbalization tasks that tapped into the knowledge of L2 phonology. The study found a significant inverse relationship between the degree of a foreign accent and phonological awareness, particularly implicit knowledge of L2 segmentals. Further in-depth analyses revealed that explicit knowledge of L2 phonology alone was not sufficient for targetlike pronunciation. Findings suggest that L2 speakers experience varying degrees of difficulty in perceiving and producing different L2 segmentals, possibly resulting in foreign-accented speech

Relative Salience of Speech Rhythm and Speech Rate on Perceived Foreign Accent in a Second Language

We investigated the independent contribution of speech rate and speech rhythm to perceived foreign accent. To address this issue we used a resynthesis technique that allows neutralizing segmental and tonal idiosyncrasies between identical sentences produced by French learners of English at different proficiency levels and maintaining the idiosyncrasies pertaining to prosodic timing patterns. We created stimuli that (1) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rhythm while controlling for the differences in speech rate between the utterances; (2) preserved the idiosyncrasies in speech rate while controlling for the differences in speech rhythm between the utterances; and (3) preserved the idiosyncrasies both in speech rate and speech rhythm. All the stimuli were created in intoned (with imposed intonational contour) and flat (with monotonized, constant F0) conditions. The original and the resynthesized sentences were rated by native speakers of English for degree of foreign accent. We found that both speech rate and speech rhythm influence the degree of perceived foreign accent, but the effect of speech rhythm is larger than that of speech rate. We also found that intonation enhances the perception of fine differences in rhythmic patterns but reduces the perceptual salience of fine differences in speech rate

Teaching Listening For Prominence In Combination With Reading To Help Students Determine New Information

The purpose of this study was to assess whether teaching adult English Language Learners (ELLs) to listen for new information spoken with prominence on the target new information increased their ability to make inferences about meaning. Data collected included: a pre and post-test to assess students’ learning during the intervention; an uptake sheet to solicit students’ self-perception of their learning about pronunciation and placement of new information; and a Likert scale to elicit participants’ self-assessment of their ability to identify and use prominence. While results of the post-test on selecting the correct inference were inconclusive, quantitative and qualitative data indicated gains in hearing prominence

What Characterizes Comprehensible and Native‐like Pronunciation Among English‐as‐a‐Second‐Language Speakers? Meta‐Analyses of Phonological, Rater, and Instructional Factors

The current study presents two meta‐analyses to explore what underlies the assessment and teaching of comprehensible and nativelike pronunciation among English‐as‐a‐Second‐Language speakers. In Study 1, listener studies (n = 37) were retrieved examining the influence of segmental, prosodic, and temporal features on listeners’ intuitive judgements of comprehensibility and nativelikeness/accentedness as per different listener backgrounds (expert, mixed, L2). In Study 2, training studies (n = 17) were retrieved examining the effects of segmental, prosodic, and temporal‐based instruction on ESL learners’ pronunciation. The results showed that (a) comprehensibility judgements were related to a range of segmental, prosodic, and temporal features; (b) accentedness judgements were strongly tied to participants’ correct pronunciation of consonants and vowels; and (c) instruction led to larger gains in comprehensibility than in nativelikeness. Moderator analyses demonstrated that expert listeners were more reliant on phonological information. Greater effects of instruction on comprehensibility than nativelikeness became clearer, especially when the treatment targeted prosodic accuracy. The findings suggest that ESL practitioners should prioritize suprasegemental practice to help students achieve comprehensible L2 pronunciation. The attainment of nativelike pronunciation, by contrast, may require an exclusive focus on the refinement of segmental accuracy, which is resistant to the influence of instruction

The Development of Speech Rhythm and Fluency of Advanced English Learners: A Mixed Methods Study of the Correlation between Native Speaker Evaluations and Acoustic Measures

This thesis examined the changes in speech rhythm and fluency of advanced English learners during a pronunciation course. The research strived to answer the following research questions: ‘Do speech rhythm and fluency of advanced English learners change after a pronunciation course according to native speaker ratings?’, ‘if yes, which acoustic measures do these changes correlate with?’, and ‘what is the correlation between the perceived speech rhythm, fluency, accentedness, and comprehensibility?’. I approached these issues through mixed methods, both quantitative and qualitative. First, 20 advanced Finnish learners of English were selected out of 45 first-year major English students available. The number of the participants was limited keeping in mind the duration of the native-speaker questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of background information questions and 42 speech samples to be rated on a 9-point Likert scale, cropped from the learner recordings as well as one native speaker. After collecting responses from 31 native speakers of English, I conducted a statistical analysis, whose results were then used for extreme case sampling. The speech of four learners with the biggest changes in their speech rhythm and fluency was then analyzed acoustically to find the contributing factors. The results showed both positive and negative changes on an individual level, but the differences were not statistically significant on a group level. The acoustic analysis demonstrated higher fluency scores correlating with faster articulation rate, smaller number of unfilled pauses, the location of pauses at phrase or clause boundaries, and fewer repairs. Rhythm measures revealed that pitch and amplitude peaks generally matched better and the use of durational cues as well as vowel reduction and linking increased in the posttest speech. All four rated aspects correlated significantly, particularly speech rhythm and fluency scores in both pre- and posttest samples (r = 0.98). Thus, these two can be said to be closely intertwined. Based on the results, speech rhythm should not be neglected in pronunciation instruction as it strongly influences the perceptions of fluency, accentedness, and comprehensibility. It is suggested that further research on rhythm focuses on its nature as both a perceived and produced phenomenon, as well as defining its relationship to fluency