The intelligibility of L2 Speech: Are the perceptions of Non-Native Speakers and Native

Speakers Different?

Presenter: Paul Lochland

Contents

Trends & Perspectives

Definitions

Listener factors 4

1

2

Speaker factors3

Implications for TESOL6

Conclusion7

References 8

Trends & Issues

Text in here

The spread of English

1975 = 300 million ‘Native Speakers’ (NS)

= 300 million ‘Non- Native Speakers’ (NNS) (Strevens, 1980)

1997 = 320 - 380 million NS

= 1 billion NNS (Crystal, 1997)

English as a lingua franca (Elf) in the academic domain of an inner circle country

Proportion of overseas students at Australian universities that come from non-English speaking countries.

Deakin University = 17.3%

Monash University = 20.1%

Melbourne University = 21.12%

La Trobe University = 30.6%

Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology = 36%

(Deakin University, 2011; La Trobe University, 2011; Marginson, 2011; RMIT, 2011)

Traditional perspectives

SLA research shrouded in NS perspectives

Only NS can judge the intelligibility of English as an Additional Language (L2) speech

Current perspectives

There is a significant gap in our understanding of how foreign-accented English speech is perceived by Non-Native Listeners (NNL) (Derwing & Munro, 1997, 2009; Munro, 2008; Munro & Derwing, 1995, 1999, 2010)

&

Native Listeners (NL) and NNL may be affected differently by certain pronunciationfeatures of L2 speech (Kashiwagi & Snyder, 2008)

DefinitionsIntelligibility

refers to a listener’s ability to accurately recognise and record individual words

Method of measurement

- Traditional approach: Transcription of speech samples based on grammatical units

- New approach: Speech samples derived from phonological units, or Wallace Chafe’s notion of an intonation unit

(Lochland, forthcoming)

Accentedness

may be defined as the degree of contrast between a listeners’ expectation of phonological patterns and the perception of speech sounds at any given time

Exposure

means a passive experience with an accent

Familiarity

describes an active experience that results from phonetic training

Speaker factorsShort term vocal outputs

Speech rate

- Natural speech rates influence intelligibility for NL (Firth, 1992; Kashiwagi & Snyder, 2008)

- Likewise, natural speech rates affect intelligibility for NNL (Kashiwagi & Snyder, 2008)

- Synthesised speech rates affect both NL and NNL (Jones, Berry & Stevens, 2007)

Accentedness

- Quasi- independent of intelligibility and accentedness for NL. (Derwing & Munro, 1997, 2009; Munro, 2008; Munro & Derwing, 1995, 1999, 2010)

- Similarly, the independence of accentedness judgments and intelligibility for NNL (Lochland, forthcoming; Munro, Derwing & Morton, 2006)

Long term vocal outputs

Linguistic features

Suprasegmental features contribute to intelligibility for NL (Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson & Koehler, 1992; Anderson-Hsieh & Koehler, 1988; Derwing, 2008; Gallego, 1990; Johansson, 1978; Munro & Derwing, 1995, 2001; Meng, Tseng, Kondo, Harrison and Viscelgia, 2009; Nida, 1957; Tajima, Port, & Dalby, 1997

A few studies have investigated the influence of L2 suprasegmentals on NNL (Field, 2005; Jenkins, 1998)

• Segmentals influence NL (Derwing, 2008; Koster & Koet, 1993 and Fayer & Krasinski, 1987 as cited in Munro & Derwing, 1999, p. 289; Field, 2005)

• Likewise, segmentals have been found to impact the perceptions of NNL ( Deterding & Kirkpatrick, 2006; Field; Jenkins, 1998, 2000; Zielinski, 2008)

• However, only some segmentals may impact intelligibility for NNL (Field, 2005)

Listener factorsNo Exposure

• NL find novel accented L2 speech intelligible (Munro,Derwing & Morton, 2006; Kirkpatrick, Deterding & Wong, 2008)

• The intelligibility of novel foreign accents for NNL (Lochland, forthcoming; Munro et al, 2006)

Exposure

Exposure to an L2 accent improves its intelligibility for NL (Bradlow & Bent, 2008; Catford, 1950; Floccia, Butler, Goslin & Ellis, 2009; Kennedy & Trofimovich, 2008; Nelson, 2008; Norris, McQueen & Cutler, 2003)

Exposure to a particular L2 accent also increases intelligibility for NNL (Lochland, forthcoming)

• Exposure doesn’t improve the intelligibility of an L2 accent for NL (Gass & Varonis, 1984; Munro, Derwing & Morton, 2006; Kirkpatrick, Deterding & Wong, 2008)

• Exposure to a specific accent doesn’t improve intelligibility for NNL (Munro et al, 2006)

Familiarity

- Familiarity leads to increased intelligibility of foreign accents for NL (Munro et al, 2006)

- NNL?

- Combination of exposure and familiarity increase intelligibility for NL (Sabin and Wright, 2006 as cited in Bradlow & Bent, 2008, p. 727)

- NNL?

PsycholinguisticsShared L1 advantage

• No benefit (Hayes-Harb, Smith, Bent & Bradlow, 2008; Lochland, forthcoming; Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta, and Balasubramanian, 2002; Harding, 2008)

• Benefit (Bent & Bradlow, 2003; Munro et al., 2006; Smith & Bisazza, 1982)

Shared isochronous advantage • Intelligibility enhanced when L2 interlocutors share language family (e.g. the syllable

timed languages of Spanish and French) ( Lochland, forthcoming; Major, Fitzmaurice, Bunta & Balasubramanian, 2002)

Shared L1- Elf advantage

• Intelligibility is improved when a listener’s L1 shares pronunciation features with an Elf (Deterding & Kirkpatrick, 2006)

Implications for TESOLPronunciation focus

∼ A balanced approach to the teaching of suprasegmentals and segmentals

Listening focus

∼ Exposing learners to and phonetically train them with accents pertinent to their communicative needs.

∼ Expose learners to a variety of L2 accents to facilitate the development of perceptual flexibility

Assessment

∼ Evaluate the possibility of listening test bias due to shared L1/ isochronous advantage

ConclusionsAlthough research findings indicate that NNL and NL share similar perceptions of L2 features, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of possible factors that may influence the intelligibility of L2 speech for NNL. For example, a number of studies have suggested that segmentals may play a fundamental role in the intelligibility of L2 speech for NNL. Despite this, “during the past 25 years, pronunciation teachers have emphasized suprasegmentals rather than segmentals in promoting intelligibility” (Levis, 2005). In addition, recent publications have emphasized the need for current pedagogical practices to focus on suprasegmentals (Hahn, 2004), and stressed ”the importance of suprasegmental training in [L2] acquisition (Meng, Tseng, Kondo, Harrison and Viscelgia, 2009, p. 1715). It appears that the call for research to consider the perspectives of NNL has, for the most part, fallen on deaf ears. Given that the usage of English between NNS is growing at an exponential rate, further studies into the perceptions of NNL are certainly warranted.

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