Article published In:
25 years of Intelligibility, Comprehensibility and AccentednessEdited by John M. Levis, Tracey M. Derwing and Murray J. Munro
[Journal of Second Language Pronunciation 6:3] 2020
► pp. 283–309
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
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
-
Speech materials
- Procedure
-
Results
- Coding
-
Analyses
- Judgment tasks
- Orthographic transcription task
- Cross-task comparisons
- Discussion
-
Method
-
Implications for second language teaching and research
- Retrospective interpretations
- Acknowledgements
-
References
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