Article published In:
Journal of Second Language PronunciationVol. 1:1 (2015) ► pp.43–64
Beyond rating data
What do listeners believe underlies their accentedness judgments?
The accentedness judgment task is widely used in the study of second language speech, and has proven to elicit remarkably reliable ratings across listeners. Despite this reliability, however, we know little about how listeners arrive at accentedness ratings. In the present study we seek to illuminate the role that listener attitudes and expectations play in assessments of accentedness by probing listeners’ explicit criteria for the judgments. We asked ten native English listeners to rate the accentedness of five native Bosnian and five native English speakers, and then to justify their ratings in a semi-structured interview. Analysis of the interview data indicates that despite the elegance of quantitative accentedness data and its remarkable reliability, it appears that when making accentedness judgments, listeners may activate a complex set of attitudes and expectations about speakers that go far beyond a straightforward bottom-up analysis of the speech signal.
References (30)
Anderson-Hsieh, J., Johnson, R., & Koehler, K. (1992). The relationship between native speaker judgments of nonnative pronunciation and deviance in segmentals, prosody, and syllable structure. Language Learning, 421, 529–555. 
Brown, K. (1992). American college student attitudes toward non-native instructors. Multilingua, 111, 249–265.
Coupland, N., & Bishop, H. (2007). Ideologised values for British accents. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(1), 74–93.
Derwing, T.M., & Munro, M.J. (1997). Accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility: Evidence from four L1s. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 191, 1–16.
Derwing, T.M., Thomson, R.I., & Munro, M.J. (2006). English pronunciation and fluency development in Mandarin and Slavic speakers. System, 341, 183–193.
Dixon, J., Mahoney, B., & Cocks, R. (2002). Accents of guilt? Effects of regional accent, race, and crime type on attributes of guilt. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 211, 162–168.
Frumkin, L.A. (2001). The effect of eyewitnesses’ accent, nationality, and authority on the perceived favorability of their testimony. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland.
Garrett, P. (2010). Attitudes to language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hayes-Harb, R. 2014. Acoustic-phonetic parameters in the perception of accent. In J. Levis & A. Moyer (Eds.), Social dynamics in second language accent (pp. 31–51). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Hu, G., & Lindemann, S. (2009). Stereotypes of Cantonese English, apparent native/nonnative status, and their effect on nonnative English speakers’ perception. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 30(3), 253–269.
Jun, H.G., & Li, J. (2010). Factors in raters’ perceptions of comprehensibility and accentedness. In J. Levis & K. LeVelle (Eds.), Proceedings of the 1st Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Iowa State University, Sept. 2009. (pp. 53–66). Ames, IA: Iowa State University.
Kang, O., & Rubin, D.L. (2009). Reverse linguistic stereotyping: Measuring the effect of listener expectations on speech evaluation. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 28(4), 441–456.
Kvale, S., & Brinkmann, S. (2009). Interviews: Learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Lambert, W.E., Hodgson, R.C., Gardner, R.C., & Fillenbaum, S. (1960). Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 601, 44–51.
Levis, J. (2005). Changing contexts and shifting paradigms in pronunciation teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 391, 369–377.
Levis, J., & Pickering, L. (2004). Teaching intonation in discourse using speech visualization technology. System, 32(4), 505–524.
Lindemann, S. (2002). Listening with an attitude: A model of native-speaker comprehension of nonnative speakers in the United States. Language in Society, 31(3), 419–441.
Lindemann, S., & Subtirelu, N. (2013). Reliably biased: The role of listener expectation in the perception of second language speech. Language Learning, 63(3), 567–594.
Magen, H.S. (1998). The perception of foreign-accented speech’. Journal of Phonetics, 261, 381–400.
Mareuil, P.B., & Vieru-Dimulescu, B. (2006). The contribution of prosody to the perception of foreign accent. Phonetica, 631, 247–267.
Milroy, J., & Milroy, L. (1999). Authority in language: Investigating standard English. London: Routledge.
Munro, M.J., & Derwing, T.M. (1994). Evaluations of foreign accent in extemporaneous and read material.’ Language Testing, 111, 253–266.
. (1995). Foreign accent, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second language learners. Language Learning, 45(1), 73–97.
Rubin, D.L. (1992). Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates’ judgments of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher Education, 33(4), 511–531.
Schulz, J. (2012). Analysing questionnaires. Research Methods Series, Southampton, GB. Retrieved from <[URL]>
Southwood, M.H., & Flege, J.E. (1999). Scaling foreign accent: Direct magnitude estimation versus interval scaling. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 131, 335–349.
Viera, A.J., & Garrett J.M. (2005). Understanding interobserver agreement: The kappa statistic. Family Medicine, 371, 360–363.
Wayland, R. (1997). Nonnative production of Thai: Acoustic measurements and accentedness ratings. Applied Linguistics, 181, 345–373.
Weinberger, S. (2014). Speech Accent Archive. George Mason University. Retrieved from <[URL]>
Wilson, T.D., & Schooler, J.W. (1991). Thinking too much: Introspection can reduce the quality of preferences and decisions.’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 601, 181–192.
Cited by (15)
Cited by 15 other publications
Tsunemoto, Aki, Mark McAndrews, Pavel Trofimovich & Eric Friginal
2023. Listener perceptions of customer service agents’ performance. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 9:2 ► pp. 234 ff. 
Tsunemoto, Aki, Rachael Lindberg, Pavel Trofimovich & Kim McDonough
2022. VISUAL CUES AND RATER PERCEPTIONS OF SECOND LANGUAGE COMPREHENSIBILITY, ACCENTEDNESS, AND FLUENCY. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 44:3 ► pp. 659 ff.
Smirnova Henriques, Anna, Thaiza Barros & Sandra Madureira
2020. Proficiência oral em Português Brasileiro: cenário, contextos de avaliação e de instrução e questionamentos. Revista da ABRALIN ► pp. 775 ff.
KNOOIHUIZEN, REMCO
2019. Accuracy and acceptability of second-dialect performance on American television. English Language and Linguistics 23:2 ► pp. 229 ff.
Foote, Jennifer A. & Pavel Trofimovich
2018. Is It Because of My Language Background? A Study of Language Background Influence on Comprehensibility Judgments. The Canadian Modern Language Review 74:2 ► pp. 253 ff.
Lappin-Fortin, Kerry
2018. Investigating L1 lay assessments of L2 French pronunciation. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 4:1 ► pp. 103 ff.
Mok, Peggy Pik Ki, Albert Lee, Joanne Jingwen Li & Robert Bo Xu
2018. Orthographic effects on the perception and production of L2 mandarin tones. Speech Communication 101 ► pp. 1 ff.
Susan, Spezzini, Franks Suzanne & Diane Carter
2018. Accent Reduction Versus Intelligibility. In The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, ► pp. 1 ff.
Reitbrecht, Sandra
2017. Bewertungen von Sprechflüssigkeit – Überblick über eine Forschungslinie mit einem Diskussionsbeitrag für die Prüfungspraxis. ÖDaF-Mitteilungen 33:2 ► pp. 96 ff.
Bent, Tessa, Eriko Atagi, Amal Akbik & Emma Bonifield
2016. Classification of regional dialects, international dialects, and nonnative accents. Journal of Phonetics 58 ► pp. 104 ff.
Crowther, Dustin, Pavel Trofimovich & Talia Isaacs
2016. Linguistic dimensions of second language accent and comprehensibility. Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 2:2 ► pp. 160 ff.
Gnevsheva, Ksenia
2016. Beyond the language: listener comments on extra-linguistic cues in perception tasks. Language Awareness 25:4 ► pp. 257 ff.
Gnevsheva, Ksenia
2018. Variation in foreign accent identification. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 39:8 ► pp. 688 ff.
Gnevsheva, Ksenia
2021. Topic affects perception of degree of foreign accent in a non-dominant language. Linguistics 59:1 ► pp. 101 ff.
O’Brien, Mary Grantham
2016. METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES IN RATING SPEECH SAMPLES. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 38:3 ► pp. 587 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.