Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4501933 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Murray J Munro (0000-0002-5936-7750, Simon Fraser University), Tracey M Derwing (0000-0002-6816-6168, University of Alberta) |
| Year | 1999 |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue | s1 |
| Pages | 285-310 |
| Publication date | 1999-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Learning (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-8333 • E-ISSN: 1467-9922 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/0023-8333.49.s1.8 |
| OpenAlex | W4231292563 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 419 |
| References cited | 29 |
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 investigation of how the presence of a nonnative accent affects intelligibility, and the notions of "heavy accent" and "low intelligibility" had often been confounded. Some of the key findings of the study-that even heavily accented speech is sometimes perfectly intelligible and that prosodic errors appear to be a more potent force in the loss of intelligibility than phonetic errors-added support to some common, but weakly substantiated beliefs. The study also provided a framework for a program of research to evaluate the ways in which such factors as intelligibility and comprehensibility are related to a number of other dimensions. The authors have extended and replicated the work begun in this study to include learners representing other L1 backgrounds (Cantonese, Japanese, Polish, Spanish) and different levels of learner proficiency, as well as other discourse types (Derwing & Munro, 1997; Munro & Derwing, 1995). Further support for the notion that accent itself should be regarded as a secondary concern was obtained in a study of processing difficulty (Munro & Derwing, 1995), which revealed that nonnative utterances tend to require more time to process than native-produced speech, but failed to indicate a relationship between strength of accent and processing time.The approach to L2 speech evaluation used in this study has also proved useful in investigations of the benefits of different methods of teaching of pronunciation to ESL learners. In particular, it is now clear that learner assessments are best carried out with attention to the multidimensional nature of L2 speech, rather than with a simple focus on global accentedness. It has been shown, for instance, that some pedagogical methods may be effective in improving intelligibility while others may have an effect only on accentedness (Derwing, Munro, & Wiebe,1998
Audiology · Cognitive psychology · Foreign language · Intelligibility (philosophy) · Language proficiency · Linguistics · Mandarin Chinese · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Pronunciation · Stress (linguistics) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Medicine · Multilingual Education and Policy · Phonetics and Phonology Research · Psychology
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Automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies for L2 pronunciation improvement
Selected Determinants of Pronunciation Anxiety
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A Comparison of the Attitudes of Learners, Instructors, and Native French Speakers About the Pronunciation of French
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Intelligibility
Accent Reduction
Computer‐Assisted Pronunciation Teaching
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Comprehensibility
Phonetics and Phonology
Foreign Accent
Pronunciation Fundamentals
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Disentangling accent from comprehensibility
Survey of the Teaching of Pronunciation in Adult ESL Programs in Canada, 2010
Deconstructing Comprehensibility
Accent, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility
Rater Experience, Rating Scale Length, and Judgments of L2 Pronunciation
Modeling Perceptions of the Accentedness and Comprehensibility of L2 Speech the Role of Speaking Rate
Second language speech production
The Mutual Intelligibility of L2 Speech
When One Person's Mistake Is Another's Standard Usage
The interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit
Suprasegmental Measures of Accentedness and Judgments of Language Learner Proficiency in Oral English
Rapid adaptation to foreign-accented English
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Associations between music perception and the production of acoustic cues to lexical stress in Mandarin learners of English
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The effect of prompt accent on elicited imitation assessments in English as a second language
Too little, too late
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A formação em pronúncia de professores de Espanhol como Língua Adicional
Second Language Speech
Interview with Dr. Mary Grantham O’Brien
The Acoustic Intelligibility of Consonants in Saudi Spoken English
Relationships Between Thai EFL Learners’ Factors, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility Towards Varieties of English
Listening Strategies Utilized by Thai EFL Students for Comprehending Asean Englishes-Accented Conversations
Cameroon English Speech
L'importance de la prosodie dans les interactions orthophoniste-enfant
The effect of hyperarticulation on speech comprehension under adverse listening conditions
Comparative Study of Voice Onset Time in English Word-Initial Stop Consonants Produced by Uzbek and American Speakers of English
Os construtos de “inteligibilidade” e “compreensibilidade” em dados do português brasileiro como língua adicional
Compreensibilidade e percepções de brasileiros sobre o estudo da pronúncia do inglês
Teaching English Pronunciation to ESP Learners
Exploring phonetic predictors of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and foreign accent in L2 Spanish speech
Comprehensible to Whom? Examining Rater, Speaker, and Interlocutor Perspectives on Comprehensibility in an Interactive Context
Second Language Learners’ Attitudes Toward French Varieties
Second Language Speech Intelligibility Revisited
Does Mode of Input Affect How Second Language Learners Create Form–Meaning Connections and Pronounce Second Language Words
International intelligibility of English spoken by college students in the Bashu dialect area of China
Acquisition of stress assignment phonology by Levantine Arabic Learners of English
Initial self-assessment calibration and post-baseline L2 speech comprehensibility trajectories
Testing the Lingua Franca Core
Swedish Youths as Listeners of Global Englishes Speakers With Diverse Accents
On the Difficulty of Defining “Difficult” in Second-Language Vowel Acquisition
Vowel Quality and Direction of Stress Shift in a Predictive Model Explaining the Varying Impact of Misplaced Word Stress
Recall of Own Speech Following Interaction With L2 Speakers
Evaluations of foreign accent in extemporaneous and read material
Discrimination in Evaluative Judgments against Foreign-Accented Job Candidates
Teaching English Pronunciation
Pronunciation Revisited
Studies of Error Gravity. Native Reactions to Errors Produced by Swedish Learners of English
Processing Time, Accent, and Comprehensibility in the Perception of Native and Foreign-Accented Speech
Accent Scaling and Language Attitudes
Evaluative reactions of adolescents toward speakers of standard English and Mexican American accented English
Native Speaker Reactions to Learners' Spoken Interlanguage 1
Attempts to Improve English L2 Pronunciation
Native and Nonnative Judgments of Intelligibility and Irritation
Measurements of accent and attitude toward Mexican-American speech
The Pronunciation Component in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
The Relationship Between Native Speaker Judgments of Nonnative Pronunciation and Deviance in Segmentais, Prosody, and Syllable Structure
The Evaluation of Accent in the English of Dutchmen
The Effect of Familiarity on the Comprehensibility of Nonnative Speech
Dictation as a Measure of Mutual Intelligibility
Intraclass correlations
Evaluational reactions to spoken languages
Evaluational reactions to accented English speech
Evaluational reactions of bilingual and monolingual children to spoken languages
Comprehension, Irritation and Error Hierarchies
| Unique citing works | 346 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 13,52 |
| Citation span | 1995 - 2026 (32) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | Yes |
| Citation types | Neutral: 379 |