Interlanguage Speech Comprehensibility Benefit

Session Submission Type: Paper

Summary

Focusing on the comprehensibility of Mandarin-accented English speech, this empirical study investigated an interlanguage speech comprehensibility benefit when non-native listeners shared or did not share a first language with non-native speakers. The impact of proficiency level on the potential interlanguage speech comprehensibility benefit was also examined.

Abstract

Given that non-native speakers using English for international communication now outnumber native speakers, it is important to understand how second language (L2) pronunciation is assessed by L2 listeners, in addition to first language (L1) listeners. Research investigating the role of L1 backgrounds in L2 speech assessment has been primarily interested in intelligibility, focusing on the Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (Bent & Bradlow, 2003). However, to achieve successful communication, comprehensibility is also an important measure.

This empirical study focused on the comprehensibility of Mandarin-accented English speech for native English listeners, non-native listeners from Mandarin L1 background, and non-native listeners from non-Mandarin L1 backgrounds. The study investigated the associations between the aforementioned comprehensibility ratings, and the impact of English proficiency on these associations.

A group of Mandarin L1 speakers (n=38) were recorded describing in English a story based on sequence of pictures. After all speech samples were collected, the investigator held meetings with the same Mandarin L1 speakers, 41 non-native English speakers from non-Mandarin backgrounds, and 8 inexperienced native listeners, during which each participant rated the Mandarin-accented speech samples for comprehensibility on a scale of 1-9. A speech sample from the same picture narrative task was also collected from each non-Mandarin L1 speaker, which, together with the Mandarin-accented samples, were rated by the native listeners for accentedness. Accentedness was used as the proficiency measure.

Results from Pearson correlation and T-test analyses revealed an interlanguage speech comprehensibility benefit for listeners when L2 speakers and listeners shared an L1, and this benefit held for all listener/speaker proficiency combinations with the exception of low-proficiency listeners listening to high-proficiency speech. When L2 speakers and listeners did not share an L1, there was an interlanguage speech comprehensibility benefit for low-proficiency listeners listening to low-proficiency speech, but an interlanguage comprehensibility “detriment” for low-proficiency listeners listening to high-proficiency speech.

Strand

• Second and Foreign Language Pedagogy (PED)

Presenter

• Mushi Li, Tufts University