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25 years of Intelligibility, Comprehensibility and Accentedness
Edited by John M. Levis, Tracey M. Derwing and Murray J. Munro
[Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 6:3] 2020
► pp. 283–309

Foreign accent, comprehensibility and intelligibility, redux

ORCID logo | Simon Fraser University
ORCID logo | Simon Fraser University | University of Alberta

We revisit Munro and Derwing (1995a), providing retrospective commentary on our original methods and findings. Using what are now well-established assessment techniques, the study examined the interrelationships among accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in the speech of second-language learners. The key finding was that the dimensions at issue are related, but partially independent. Of particular note was our observation that speech can be heavily accented but highly intelligible. To provide a fresh perspective on the original data we report a few new analyses, including more up-to-date statistical modeling. Throughout the original text we intersperse insights we have gained over the past 25 years. We conclude with retrospective interpretations, including thoughts on the relevance of the study to contemporary second language teaching and especially pronunciation instruction.

Keywords: accentedness, intelligibility, comprehensibility, pronunciation
Article outline
  • Intelligibility, comprehensibility and pronunciation
    • Method
      • Speech materials
        • Speakers
        • Recording
        • Listeners
    • Procedure
    • Results
      • Coding
    • Analyses
      • Judgment tasks
      • Orthographic transcription task
      • Cross-task comparisons
    • Discussion
  • Implications for second language teaching and research
    • Retrospective interpretations
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 31 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20038.mun
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