Second language speech production: Investigating linguistic correlates of comprehensibility and accentedness for learners at different ability levels

Kazuya Saito · Pavel Trofimovich · Talia Isaacs

223 citations0/0 files storedApplied Psycholinguistics

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Phonetics and Phonology Research EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Acquisition and Learning

Abstract

ABSTRACT The current project aimed to investigate the potentially different linguistic correlates of comprehensibility (i.e., ease of understanding) and accentedness (i.e., linguistic nativelikeness) in adult second language (L2) learners’ extemporaneous speech production. Timed picture descriptions from 120 beginner, intermediate, and advanced Japanese learners of English were analyzed using native speaker global judgments based on learners’ comprehensibility and accentedness, and then submitted to segmental, prosodic, temporal, lexical, and grammatical analyses. Results showed that comprehensibility was related to all linguistic domains, and accentedness was strongly tied with pronunciation (specifically segmentals) rather than lexical and grammatical domains. In particular, linguistic correlates of L2 comprehensibility and accentedness were found to vary by learners’ proficiency levels. In terms of comprehensibility, optimal rate of speech, appropriate and rich vocabulary use, and adequate and varied prosody were important for beginner to intermediate levels, whereas segmental accuracy, good prosody, and correct grammar featured strongly for intermediate to advanced levels. For accentedness, grammatical complexity was a feature of intermediate to high-level performance, whereas segmental and prosodic variables were essential to accentedness across all levels. These findings suggest that syllabi tailored to learners’ proficiency level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) and learning goal (comprehensibility or nativelike accent) would be advantageous for the teaching of L2 speaking.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 223 citations exist upstream.

References

2011Praat: Doing Phonetics by Computer 1996The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition 2001The Phonology of English as an International Language 1995Foreign Accent, Comprehensibility, and Intelligibility in the Speech of Second Language Learners 2008Review article: Instructed second language vocabulary learning 2000THE ROBUSTNESS OF CRITICAL PERIOD EFFECTS IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION 2009Modelling Second Language Performance: Integrating Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency, and Lexis 1996The Influence of Planning and Task Type on Second Language Performance

Cited by

2015Using Listener Judgments to Investigate Linguistic Influences on L2 Comprehensibility and Accentedness: A Validation and Generalization Study 2014Second Language Comprehensibility Revisited: Investigating the Effects of Learner Background 2020Revisiting the Intelligibility and Nativeness Principles 2016Differential effects of instruction on the development of second language comprehensibility, word stress, rhythm, and intonation: The case of inexperienced Japanese EFL learners

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.