Murray J Munro
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 1240443 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Murray J Munro |
| NOMBRES | Murray J |
| APELLIDO | Munro |
| FIRMA | MUNRO M J |
| AFILIACIONES | Simon Fraser University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5936-7750 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 37 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 522 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 35 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 2 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1969 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 13 |
How long can naturalistic L2 pronunciation learning continue in adults? A 10-year study
We examined the naturalistic pronunciation development of two groups of L2 speakers over 10 years. Initially, 50 beginner ESL students participated in production tasks; despite attrition, the tasks were administered eight more times. Here we report listener judgements of accentedness, comprehensibility and fluency for the remaining six Mandarin and 12 Slavic language speakers at Year 10. Analyses of listener judgments of accentedness, comprehensi…
Aspiring to Aspirate
This short report describes a longitudinal examination of the acquisition of English-aspirated stops by an initial cohort of 24 adult Slavic-language (Russian, Ukrainian, and Croatian) speakers. All had arrived in Canada with low oral English proficiency, and all were enrolled in the same language instruction program at the outset. Initial bilabial stops in CVCs were recorded at eight testing times: six during the first year of the study, again a…
On the Difficulty of Defining “Difficult” in Second-Language Vowel Acquisition
Hierarchies of difficulty in second-language (L2) phonology have long played a role in the postulation and evaluation of learning models. In L2 pronunciation teaching, hierarchies are assumed to be helpful in the development of instructional strategies based on anticipated areas of difficulty. This investigation addressed the practicality of defining a pedagogically useful hierarchy of difficulty for English tense and lax close vowels (/i I u ʊ/)…
Pronunciation Fundamentals
The emergence of empirical approaches to L2 pronunciation research and teaching is a powerful fourth wave in the history of the field. Authored by two leading proponents of evidence-based instruction, this volume surveys both foundational and cutting-edge empirical work and pinpoints its ramifications for pedagogy. The authors begin by tracing the history of pronunciation instruction and explicating L2 phonetic learning processes. Subsequent chap…
The Early Phase of /ɹ/ Production Development in Adult Japanese Learners of English
Although previous research indicates that Japanese speakers’ second language (L2) perception and production of English /ɹ/ may improve with increased L2 experience, relatively little is known about the fine phonetic details of their /ɹ/ productions, especially during the early phase of L2 speech learning. This cross-sectional study examined acoustic properties of word-initial /ɹ/ from 60 Japanese learners with a length of residence of between one…
Tone assimilation by Mandarin and Thai listeners with and without L2 experience
Opening the Window on Comprehensible Pronunciation After 19 Years
We present the outcomes of a pronunciation training program conducted in a workplace setting with second language speakers who had lived in an English-speaking environment for an average of 19 years. The research questions concerned whether improvement would occur in the learners' perception of certain segments and prosody; in the comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency of their productions as judged by listeners; and in their speech intelli…
The Development of L2 Oral Language Skills in Two L1 Groups
Researching the longitudinal development of second language (L2) learners is essential to understanding influences on their success. This 7-year study of oral skills in adult immigrant learners of English as a second language evaluated comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in first-language (L1) Mandarin and Slavic language speakers. The primary data were judgments at three times from two sets of listeners: native monolingual speakers of E…
Intelligibility
Intelligibility is an aspect of speech with far‐reaching consequences for human communication.
Phonetics and Phonology
Although phonetics and phonology both concern the study of speech, linguists have traditionally considered these as different areas of study.
The foundations of accent and intelligibility in pronunciation research
Our goal in developing this timeline was to trace the empirical bases of current approaches to L2 pronunciation teaching, with particular attention to the concepts of accent and intelligibility . The process of identifying suitable works for inclusion challenged us in several ways. First, the number of empirical studies of pronunciation instruction is far too small to provide an interesting perspective on the issues. In fact, the dearth of such i…
Symposium – Accentuating the Positive
Held at the Association canadienne de linguistique appliquée/Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Ottawa, Canada; 27 May 2009. Over the past few decades perspectives on second language (L2) pronunciation have evolved from pessimistic appraisals of the capabilities of L2 learners and doubts about the value of instruction to a view of pronunciation teaching as an effective and important part of language pedagogy. Earlier research…
The Relationship Between L1 Fluency and L2 Fluency Development
A fundamental question in the study of second language (L2) fluency is the extent to which temporal characteristics of speakers’ first language (L1) productions predict the same characteristics in the L2. A close relationship between a speaker’s L1 and L2 temporal characteristics would suggest that fluency is governed by an underlying trait. This longitudinal investigation compared L1 and L2 English fluency at three times over 2 years in Russian-…
Putting accent in its place
One of the most salient aspects of speech is accent – either dialectal differences attributable to region or class, or phonological variations resulting from L1 influence on the L2. Our primary concern is with the latter, because of the strong social, psychological, and communicative consequences of speaking with an L2 accent. The decline of audiolingualism led to a concomitant marginalization of pronunciation research and teaching. It was believ…
Segmental Acquisition in Adult ESL Learners
Research on second language (L2) phonetic learning indicates that, even in adults, segmental acquisition remains possible through L2 experience. However, the findings of previous cross-sectional studies of vowel and consonant learning have proved difficult to interpret. In this longitudinal investigation of 44 recent arrivals in Canada, productions of 10 English vowels in CVC context were elicited at 2-month intervals and evaluated by trained and…
Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning
This stimulating collection of articles from leading international researchers provides a state-of-the-art overview of core issues in second language speech perception and production. Aimed at phoneticians, speech scientists, psycholinguists, applied linguists, and pedagogical specialists, it presents engaging discussions of fundamental problems and controversies within the field, as well as new empirical findings arising from a variety of method…
Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning
A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners' Fluency and Comprehensibility Development
This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted interviews at the last data collection session. The participants’ fluency and comprehensibility at three …
The Mutual Intelligibility of L2 Speech
When understanding or evaluating foreign-accented speech, listeners are affected not only by properties of the speech itself but by their own linguistic backgrounds and their experience with different speech varieties. Given the latter influence, it is not known to what degree a diverse group of listeners might share a response to second language (L2) speech. In this study, listeners from native Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, and English backgrou…
The functional load principle in ESL pronunciation instruction
English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers
Second Language Accent and Pronunciation Teaching
Empirical studies are essential to improving our understanding of the relationship between accent and pronunciation teaching. However, the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can successfully assist their students under these conditions, many others are reluctant to teach pronuncia…
Computer-based training for learning English vowel contrasts
Second Language Fluency
In this study we determined whether untrained raters' assessments of fluency in low-proficiency second language speech were related to temporal measures and whether they varied across tasks. We collected speech samples from 20 beginner Mandarin learners of English on picture description, monologue, and dialogue tasks. Temporal measures were made on each sample. Twenty-eight untrained judges rated fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Thre…
Teaching Native Speakers to Listen to Foreign-accented Speech
This study examined the effects of cross-cultural awareness training and explicit linguistic instruction on attitudes towards and comprehension of foreign-accented speech. One group of social work students received both types of instruction; another received only cross-cultural training, and a third group served as a control (they received no instruction but participated in the pre- and post-tests). Listening comprehension passages read in Vietna…
Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners
One of the chief goals of most second language learners is to be understood in their second language by a wide range of interlocutors in a variety of contexts. Although a nonnative accent can sometimes interfere with this goal, prior to the publication of this study, second language researchers and teachers alike were aware that an accent itself does not necessarily act as a communicative barrier. Nonetheless, there had been very little empirical…
Processing Time, Accent, and Comprehensibility in the Perception of Native and Foreign-Accented Speech
In this study, a sentence verification task was used to determine the effect of a foreign accent on sentence processing time. Twenty native English listeners heard a set of English true/false statements uttered by ten native speakers of English and ten native speakers of Mandarin. The listeners assessed the truth value of the statements, and assigned accent and comprehensibility ratings. Response latency data indicated that the Mandarin-accented …
Second Language Accent and Pronunciation Teaching
Empirical studies are essential to improving our understanding of the relationship between accent and pronunciation teaching. However, the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can successfully assist their students under these conditions, many others are reluctant to teach pronuncia…
Putting accent in its place
One of the most salient aspects of speech is accent – either dialectal differences attributable to region or class, or phonological variations resulting from L1 influence on the L2. Our primary concern is with the latter, because of the strong social, psychological, and communicative consequences of speaking with an L2 accent. The decline of audiolingualism led to a concomitant marginalization of pronunciation research and teaching. It was believ…
The functional load principle in ESL pronunciation instruction
Evidence in Favor of a Broad Framework for Pronunciation Instruction
We had native English-speaking (NS) listeners evaluate the effects of 3types of instruction (segmental accuracy; general speaking habits and prosodic factors; and nospecific pronunciation instruction) on the speech of 3 groups of English as a second language(ESL) learners. We recorded their sentences and extemporaneously produced narratives at thebeginning and end of a 12-week course of instruction. In a blind rating task, 48 native Englishlisten…
The Development of L2 Oral Language Skills in Two L1 Groups
Researching the longitudinal development of second language (L2) learners is essential to understanding influences on their success. This 7-year study of oral skills in adult immigrant learners of English as a second language evaluated comprehensibility, fluency, and accentedness in first-language (L1) Mandarin and Slavic language speakers. The primary data were judgments at three times from two sets of listeners: native monolingual speakers of E…
Second Language Fluency
In this study we determined whether untrained raters' assessments of fluency in low-proficiency second language speech were related to temporal measures and whether they varied across tasks. We collected speech samples from 20 beginner Mandarin learners of English on picture description, monologue, and dialogue tasks. Temporal measures were made on each sample. Twenty-eight untrained judges rated fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Thre…
Teaching Native Speakers to Listen to Foreign-accented Speech
This study examined the effects of cross-cultural awareness training and explicit linguistic instruction on attitudes towards and comprehension of foreign-accented speech. One group of social work students received both types of instruction; another received only cross-cultural training, and a third group served as a control (they received no instruction but participated in the pre- and post-tests). Listening comprehension passages read in Vietna…
Canadians in Alabama
Productions of English Vowels by Native Speakers of Arabic
Productions of ten English vowels in /bVt/ and /bVd/ contexts were elicited from a group of native American English speakers and a group of native Arabic speakers who had learned English in adulthood. When a variety of acoustic measurements, including vowel durations, F 1 and F 2 frequencies, and movement in F 1 and F 2 were examined, the two groups were found to differ on at least one of these parameters for nearly every vowel considered. A subs…
The foundations of accent and intelligibility in pronunciation research
Our goal in developing this timeline was to trace the empirical bases of current approaches to L2 pronunciation teaching, with particular attention to the concepts of accent and intelligibility . The process of identifying suitable works for inclusion challenged us in several ways. First, the number of empirical studies of pronunciation instruction is far too small to provide an interesting perspective on the issues. In fact, the dearth of such i…
Segmental Acquisition in Adult ESL Learners
Research on second language (L2) phonetic learning indicates that, even in adults, segmental acquisition remains possible through L2 experience. However, the findings of previous cross-sectional studies of vowel and consonant learning have proved difficult to interpret. In this longitudinal investigation of 44 recent arrivals in Canada, productions of 10 English vowels in CVC context were elicited at 2-month intervals and evaluated by trained and…
The Effects of Speaking Rate on Listener Evaluations of Native and Foreign-Accented Speech
This study tested the hypothesis that accented speech heard at a reduced rate would sound less accented and more comprehensible than speech produced at a normal rate. In 2 experiments, English native-speaker listeners rated a passage read by 10 high-proficiency Mandarin learners of English. In the first experiment, 20 listeners evaluated passages read slowly as more accented and less comprehensible than normal-rate passages. In the second experim…
Computer-based training for learning English vowel contrasts
English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers
Tone assimilation by Mandarin and Thai listeners with and without L2 experience
Opening the Window on Comprehensible Pronunciation After 19 Years
We present the outcomes of a pronunciation training program conducted in a workplace setting with second language speakers who had lived in an English-speaking environment for an average of 19 years. The research questions concerned whether improvement would occur in the learners' perception of certain segments and prosody; in the comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency of their productions as judged by listeners; and in their speech intelli…
The Early Phase of /ɹ/ Production Development in Adult Japanese Learners of English
Although previous research indicates that Japanese speakers’ second language (L2) perception and production of English /ɹ/ may improve with increased L2 experience, relatively little is known about the fine phonetic details of their /ɹ/ productions, especially during the early phase of L2 speech learning. This cross-sectional study examined acoustic properties of word-initial /ɹ/ from 60 Japanese learners with a length of residence of between one…
Aspiring to Aspirate
This short report describes a longitudinal examination of the acquisition of English-aspirated stops by an initial cohort of 24 adult Slavic-language (Russian, Ukrainian, and Croatian) speakers. All had arrived in Canada with low oral English proficiency, and all were enrolled in the same language instruction program at the outset. Initial bilabial stops in CVCs were recorded at eight testing times: six during the first year of the study, again a…
Does Popular Speech Recognition Software Work with ESL Speech
Tracey M. Derwing, Murray J. Munro, Michael Carbonaro, Does Popular Speech Recognition Software Work with ESL Speech?, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3, TESOL in the 21st Century (Autumn, 2000), pp. 592-603
Citizenship Education for Adult Immigrants
During the past few years Citizenship and Immigration Canada has significantly changed the citizenship process by modifying the application procedure, eliminating many citizenship judge positions, introducing a multiple-choice test, and restructuring the citizenship ceremony itself. In order to assess the impact of these changes on citizenship education, we located and contacted citizenship programs across the country. For comparison purposes we …
Productions of English Vowels by Native Speakers of Arabic
Productions of ten English vowels in /bVt/ and /bVd/ contexts were elicited from a group of native American English speakers and a group of native Arabic speakers who had learned English in adulthood. When a variety of acoustic measurements, including vowel durations, F 1 and F 2 frequencies, and movement in F 1 and F 2 were examined, the two groups were found to differ on at least one of these parameters for nearly every vowel considered. A subs…
Evaluations of foreign accent in extemporaneous and read material
Previous research has yielded apparently contradictory evidence about whether the utterances of second language learners are likely to be perceived as more foreign accented when the speech material has been read or produced extemporaneously. One difficulty with some previous studies is that different test material was used under the two speaking conditions. It is possible that, in some studies, utterances read by L2 learners were evaluated as mor…
Factors affecting strength of perceived foreign accent in a second language
This study assessed the relation between non-native subjects’ age of learning (AOL) English and the overall degree of perceived foreign accent in their production of English sentences. The 240 native Italian (NI) subjects examined had begun learning English in Canada between the ages of 2 and 23 yr, and had lived in Canada for an average of 32 yr. Native English-speaking listeners used a continuous scale to rate sentences spoken by the NI subject…
Processing Time, Accent, and Comprehensibility in the Perception of Native and Foreign-Accented Speech
In this study, a sentence verification task was used to determine the effect of a foreign accent on sentence processing time. Twenty native English listeners heard a set of English true/false statements uttered by ten native speakers of English and ten native speakers of Mandarin. The listeners assessed the truth value of the statements, and assigned accent and comprehensibility ratings. Response latency data indicated that the Mandarin-accented …
Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners
One of the chief goals of most second language learners is to be understood in their second language by a wide range of interlocutors in a variety of contexts. Although a nonnative accent can sometimes interfere with this goal, prior to the publication of this study, second language researchers and teachers alike were aware that an accent itself does not necessarily act as a communicative barrier. Nonetheless, there had been very little empirical…
Accent, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility
This study was designed to extend previous research on the relationships among intelligibility, perceived comprehensibility, and accentedness. Accent and comprehensibility ratings and transcriptions of accented speech from Cantonese, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish intermediate ESL students were obtained from 26 native English listeners. The listeners were also asked to identify the first language backgrounds of the same talkers and to provide info…
Evidence in Favor of a Broad Framework for Pronunciation Instruction
We had native English-speaking (NS) listeners evaluate the effects of 3types of instruction (segmental accuracy; general speaking habits and prosodic factors; and nospecific pronunciation instruction) on the speech of 3 groups of English as a second language(ESL) learners. We recorded their sentences and extemporaneously produced narratives at thebeginning and end of a 12-week course of instruction. In a blind rating task, 48 native Englishlisten…
The Effects of Speaking Rate on Listener Evaluations of Native and Foreign-Accented Speech
This study tested the hypothesis that accented speech heard at a reduced rate would sound less accented and more comprehensible than speech produced at a normal rate. In 2 experiments, English native-speaker listeners rated a passage read by 10 high-proficiency Mandarin learners of English. In the first experiment, 20 listeners evaluated passages read slowly as more accented and less comprehensible than normal-rate passages. In the second experim…
Canadians in Alabama
Does Popular Speech Recognition Software Work with ESL Speech
Tracey M. Derwing, Murray J. Munro, Michael Carbonaro, Does Popular Speech Recognition Software Work with ESL Speech?, TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3, TESOL in the 21st Century (Autumn, 2000), pp. 592-603
Modeling Perceptions of the Accentedness and Comprehensibility of L2 Speech the Role of Speaking Rate
In much previous research, listeners' rating data have served as a dependent variable to demonstrate the effects of age of learning, length of residence, and motivation on L2 users' degree of foreign accent. However, the role of speaking rate in such judgments has not been ascertained. To gain new insight into this relationship, we carried out two experiments involving sentence-length utterances produced by English L2 users. In the first, we obse…
Teaching Native Speakers to Listen to Foreign-accented Speech
This study examined the effects of cross-cultural awareness training and explicit linguistic instruction on attitudes towards and comprehension of foreign-accented speech. One group of social work students received both types of instruction; another received only cross-cultural training, and a third group served as a control (they received no instruction but participated in the pre- and post-tests). Listening comprehension passages read in Vietna…
Computer-based training for learning English vowel contrasts
Second Language Fluency
In this study we determined whether untrained raters' assessments of fluency in low-proficiency second language speech were related to temporal measures and whether they varied across tasks. We collected speech samples from 20 beginner Mandarin learners of English on picture description, monologue, and dialogue tasks. Temporal measures were made on each sample. Twenty-eight untrained judges rated fluency, comprehensibility, and accentedness. Thre…
Second Language Accent and Pronunciation Teaching
Empirical studies are essential to improving our understanding of the relationship between accent and pronunciation teaching. However, the study of pronunciation has been marginalized within the field of applied linguistics. As a result, teachers are often left to rely on their own intuitions with little direction. Although some instructors can successfully assist their students under these conditions, many others are reluctant to teach pronuncia…
The Mutual Intelligibility of L2 Speech
When understanding or evaluating foreign-accented speech, listeners are affected not only by properties of the speech itself but by their own linguistic backgrounds and their experience with different speech varieties. Given the latter influence, it is not known to what degree a diverse group of listeners might share a response to second language (L2) speech. In this study, listeners from native Cantonese, Japanese, Mandarin, and English backgrou…
The functional load principle in ESL pronunciation instruction
English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers
Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning
This stimulating collection of articles from leading international researchers provides a state-of-the-art overview of core issues in second language speech perception and production. Aimed at phoneticians, speech scientists, psycholinguists, applied linguists, and pedagogical specialists, it presents engaging discussions of fundamental problems and controversies within the field, as well as new empirical findings arising from a variety of method…
Language Experience in Second Language Speech Learning
A Longitudinal Study of ESL Learners' Fluency and Comprehensibility Development
This longitudinal mixed-methods study compared the oral fluency of well-educated adult immigrants from Mandarin and Slavic language backgrounds (16 per group) enrolled in introductory English as a second language (ESL) classes. Speech samples were collected over a 2-year period, together with estimates of weekly English use. We also conducted interviews at the last data collection session. The participants’ fluency and comprehensibility at three …
Segmental Acquisition in Adult ESL Learners
Research on second language (L2) phonetic learning indicates that, even in adults, segmental acquisition remains possible through L2 experience. However, the findings of previous cross-sectional studies of vowel and consonant learning have proved difficult to interpret. In this longitudinal investigation of 44 recent arrivals in Canada, productions of 10 English vowels in CVC context were elicited at 2-month intervals and evaluated by trained and…
The Relationship Between L1 Fluency and L2 Fluency Development
A fundamental question in the study of second language (L2) fluency is the extent to which temporal characteristics of speakers’ first language (L1) productions predict the same characteristics in the L2. A close relationship between a speaker’s L1 and L2 temporal characteristics would suggest that fluency is governed by an underlying trait. This longitudinal investigation compared L1 and L2 English fluency at three times over 2 years in Russian-…
Putting accent in its place
One of the most salient aspects of speech is accent – either dialectal differences attributable to region or class, or phonological variations resulting from L1 influence on the L2. Our primary concern is with the latter, because of the strong social, psychological, and communicative consequences of speaking with an L2 accent. The decline of audiolingualism led to a concomitant marginalization of pronunciation research and teaching. It was believ…
Linguistics (33 obras) · Psychology (33 obras) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (31 obras) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (20 obras) · Pronunciation (19 obras) · Mathematics education (13 obras) · Multilingual Education and Policy (12 obras) · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning (11 obras) · Mandarin Chinese (11 obras) · Computer Science (10 obras)