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Article published In:
Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
Vol. 7:3 (2021) ► pp.315–342

Difficulties understanding L2 speech due to discourse- versus word-level elements

ORCID logo | Concordia University

In this article, the constructs of intelligibility, comprehensibility, and discourse-level understanding in second language (L2) speech are analyzed for their conceptual and methodological characteristics. The analysis is complemented by a case study of listeners’ understanding of two matched L2 English speakers, who completed three speaking tasks over 17 weeks. One listening task focused on word/phrase recognition and one focused on semantic and pragmatic understanding. Results showed two different profiles for the two speakers. When listeners had difficulty understanding, for one speaker it was often due to word/phrase recognition problems, while for the other speaker it was often due to ambiguity in the pragmatic or functional meaning of the speech. Implications are discussed for the ways in which L2 speech is elicited, evaluated, and taught.

Keywords: intelligibility, discourse, word recognition, understanding, listening task, L2 English, narrative, retell, comprehensibility
Article outline
  • 1.Intelligibility as an early research construct
    • 1.1Intelligibility in L2 pronunciation research
  • 2.Understanding and discourse in L2 research
    • 2.1Contributions of discourse cues and pronunciation to understanding
  • 3.Methodological issues for listening measures
    • 3.1Addressing methodological issues
  • 4.Research question
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Participants
      • 5.1.1Speakers
      • 5.1.2Listeners
    • 5.2Procedure
      • 5.2.1Transcription and verification of unclear utterances
      • 5.2.2Speech sample processing
      • 5.2.3Presentation of speech samples
      • 5.2.4Listening tasks
      • 5.2.5Retell task
      • 5.2.6Pause task
  • 6.Data analysis
    • 6.1Analysis of original stories and retells
    • 6.2Analysis of pause task
    • 6.3Matching of findings for retell and pause tasks
  • 7.Results
  • 8.Discussion
    • 8.1Pedagogical implications
    • 8.2Future directions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.18015.ken
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