Isaacs, T;
Thomson, RI;
(2020)
Reactions to second language speech: Influences of discrete speech characteristics, rater experience, and speaker first language background.
Journal of Second Language Pronunciation
, 6
(3)
pp. 402-429.
10.1075/jslp.20018.isa.
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Abstract
This study investigates how Mandarin and Slavic language speakers’ comprehensibility, accentedness, and fluency ratings, as assigned by experienced teacher-raters and novice raters, align with discrete linguistic measures, and raters’ accounts of influences on their scoring. In addition to examining mean ratings in relation to rater experience and speaker first language background, we correlated ratings with segmental, prosodic, and temporal measures. Introspective reports were segmented, coded, enumerated, and submitted to loglinear analysis to elucidate influences on ratings. Results showed that ratings were strongly correlated with prosodic goodness and moderately correlated with segmental errors, implying the importance of both segmentals and prosody in L2 speech ratings. Experienced teacher-raters provided lengthier reports than novice raters, producing more comments for all coded categories where an error was identified except for pausing (a dysfluency marker). This may be because novice raters observed little else about the speech or struggled to pinpoint or articulate other features.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Reactions to second language speech: Influences of discrete speech characteristics, rater experience, and speaker first language background |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1075/jslp.20018.isa |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1075/jslp.20018.isa |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | accent , comprehensibility , English as a second language , fluency , pronunciation assessment , raters , rating scales and speech perception |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10108052 |
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