Pixel International Conferences

One of the issues discussed in transdisciplinary studies of speech perception that is also in the focus of this study is the effect of speaker’s accent on the perception of speech. Prior research that has  mainly been conducted with participants whose L1 is English focuses on perception of  “accented speech“, that is, of non-native speakers, defined as the breakthrough of native language phonology into the target language (Lippi-Green, 2012). The findings of these studies suggest that accented speech is often considered as less prestigious than native patterns. Drawing on previous research, this study however aims to explore how subjects whose L1 is other than English perceive and evaluate speech that is delivered by native speakers of English (with standard English pronunciation) and how this compares to the perception of speech delivered by non-native speakers (L2 English accented speech). Participants in the study were 90 first year students, whose L1 is Croatian and who are studying at the University of Zagreb. Participants (all at CEFR-B2 level in English) were randomly divided into three groups, each exposed to the same short text in English. First group was exposed to the pre-recorded text read by an English native speaker (Standard British pronunciation) whereas the other two groups were exposed to the pre-recorded text read by non-native speakers of English with a rather pronounced L2 accent: Croatian in the second group and French in the third group. Listeners’ task was to judge qualities of text they have listened to regarding its clarity, appeal, reliability, and interestingness on a five point bipolar Likert-type scale. Listeners were also asked to evaluate how difficult it was for them to follow the text they have heard, as well as to evaluate their own English language proficiency level and satisfaction with own accent. Subjects’ evaluations were statistically analysed and compared using ANOVA. The obtained results show a significant difference in evaluations between the examined groups regarding all measured variables i.e. listeners evaluated the text read by the native speaker as more clear, and also more appealing, interesting, reliable and easy to follow. Our study also suggests that most participants wished to improve their pronunciation which also corroborates the assumption that L2 speakers often aspire to native-standards of speech. 

Key words: perception of speech, accented speech

References:

1.Munro, M. J. et al. (2006). The mutual intelligibility of L2 speech. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28(1), 111–131.

2. Fuertes et al. (2012). A meta‐analysis of the effects of speakers' accents on interpersonal evaluations. European Journal of Social Psychology,(1), 120 – 133.

3. Lippi-Green, R. (2012).  English with an Accent Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. London: Routledge.