Intelligibility and attitudes

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying-Ying Tan ◽  
Christina Castelli
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
American English ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Sound Recordings ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Inferiority Complex ◽  
Inner Circle

This paper investigates international responses to Singapore English (SgE), in terms of both intelligibility and attitudes toward the speaker, and compares it to responses to American English (AmE). It surveys 200 respondents from over 20 countries as they listen to a set of 15 sound recordings, including read SgE, spontaneous SgE, and read AmE. The results suggest that the intelligibility of SgE and AmE does differ between informants from different regions. However, the intelligibility of the test stimuli does not correlate simply to positive and negative attitudes. While SgE elicits generally positive attitudes, what is interesting is that the judgments of respondents from South-East Asia and East Asia are often more negative than those of English speakers of Inner Circle varieties. This seems to suggest not only an impenetrable mindset of these traditionally “non-native” English speakers, who seem to be still clamoring to speak an idealized “standard”, but also an inferiority complex over their own varieties of English.

A rose by any other name? Learner English and variety–status labelling: the case of English in South Korea

English Today ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 56-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jae Jung Song
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Indian English ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
British English ◽  
Outer Circle ◽  
The Face ◽  
Inner Circle

One of the major achievements of Braj Kachru's (1991) ‘liberation linguistics’ is that it has squarely placed Outer Circle varieties such as Indian English, Nigerian English and Singaporean English on a par with Inner Circle varieties such as American English and British English – in the face of negative attitudes, ranging ‘from amused condescension to racist stereotyping’ (Bruthiaux, 2003: 160). Following in Kachru's footsteps, many scholars have demonstrated that these Outer Circle Englishes are legitimate varieties of English, with distinct characteristics and with growing numbers of native speakers (e.g. Deterding, 2007; Jowitt, 1991; Sailaja, 2009). Indeed these Outer Circle English varieties are increasingly used, in respective countries, not only as the major or default medium of communication but also in the context of important domains such as education, media, government, literature and popular culture. The Kachruvian perspective has also given rise to the ‘egalitarian’ view that Inner Circle English speakers are no longer the only ones who can lay claim to the ownership of English. Outer Circle English speakers are now thought to be as much custodians of English as Inner Circle English speakers are.

Linguistic Diversity in Appalachia

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-320
Author(s):  
Frances Blanchette ◽  
Paul E. Reed ◽  
Erin Flannery ◽  
Carrie N. Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
American English ◽  
Semantic Interpretation ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Rating Task ◽  
Appalachian Region ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
American English Speakers

This study investigates how American English speakers from within and outside the Appalachian region interpret negative auxiliary inversion (NAI). Previously observed in Appalachian and other English varieties, NAI has surface syntax similar to yes-no questions but receives a declarative interpretation (e.g., Didn’t everybody watch Superbowl 53, meaning ‘not everybody watched’). Previous work shows that NAI is associated with a reading in which some but not all people participated in an event, as opposed to one in which no one participated. Results from an interpretation task revealed that Appalachian participants tended to obtain the ‘not all’ and not the ‘no one’ reading for NAI. In contrast, non-Appalachian participants’ interpretations exhibited greater inter- and intraspeaker variability. Appalachian participants with more ‘not all’ interpretations reported positive attitudes toward NAI use, and they also distinguished between attested and unattested syntactic subject types (e.g., everybody, many people, *few people) in a naturalness rating task. Appalachian participants with more ‘no one’ interpretations had more negative attitudes toward NAI use and made no distinction between subject types. These results highlight how individuals from Appalachia interpret NAI differently than individuals from outside the region and suggest that language attitudes may impact semantic interpretation within a nonmainstream speaker group.

Listening with an attitude: A model of native-speaker comprehension of non-native speakers in the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
STEPHANIE LINDEMANN
Keyword(s):  
Direct Relationship ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
The United States ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
English Speaker ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Poor Comprehension ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigates whether there is a relationship between negative attitudes toward non-native speakers and poor comprehension of those speakers. Twelve native English speakers whose attitudes toward Koreans had been assessed were asked to complete an interactional map task paired with native Korean speakers. In the task, some but not all of those who had been assessed as having negative attitudes toward Koreans were found to use either strategies that were described as problematizing their partners' utterances, or strategies that were described as avoidance. All participants completed the map task reasonably successfully except where the native English speaker used avoidance strategies, suggesting that the relationship between attitude and comprehension is mediated by the native speaker's choice of strategies. However, there appeared to be a direct relationship between attitude and perceived success of interactions, which may ultimately have the same consequences for interactants as if the relationship were between attitude and actual success.

ESL learners’ intra-speaker variability in producing American English tense and lax vowels

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce L. Smith ◽  
Eric Johnson ◽  
Rachel Hayes-Harb
Keyword(s):  
English Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
American English ◽  
Nonnative Speakers ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Speaker Variability ◽  
Production Variability ◽  
Vowel Formants ◽  
Esl Learners

Abstract Nonnative (L2) English learners are often assumed to exhibit greater speech production variability than native (L1) speakers; however, support for this assumption is primarily limited to secondary observations rather than having been the specific focus of empirical investigations. The present study examined intra-speaker variability associated with L2 English learners’ tense and lax vowel productions to determine whether they showed comparable or greater intra-speaker variability than native English speakers. First and second formants of three tense/lax vowel pairs were measured, and Coefficient of Variation was calculated for 10 native speakers of American English and 30 nonnative speakers. The L2 speakers’ vowel formants were found to be native-like approximately half of the time. Whether their formants were native-like or not, however, they seldom showed greater intra-speaker variability than the L1 speakers.

scholarly journals Swedish Youths as Listeners of Global Englishes Speakers With Diverse Accents: Listener Intelligibility, Listener Comprehensibility, Accentedness Perception, and Accentedness Acceptance

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyeseung Jeong ◽  
Anna Elgemark ◽  
Bosse Thorén
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Students ◽  
English Education ◽  
American English ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Student Groups ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
First Languages

As reflected in the concept of Global Englishes, English mediates global communication, where English speakers represent not merely those from English-speaking countries like United Kingdom or United States but also global people from a wide range of linguistic backgrounds, who speak the language with diverse accents. Thus, to communicate internationally, cultivating a maximized listening proficiency for and positive attitudes toward global Englishes speakers with diverse accents is ever more important. However, with their preference for American English and its popular culture, it is uncertain whether Swedish youth learners are developing these key linguistic qualities to be prepared for the globalized use of English. To address this, we randomly assigned 160 upper secondary students (mean age = 17.25) into six groups, where each group listened to one of six English speakers. The six speakers first languages were Mandarin, Russian/Ukrainian, Tamil, Lusoga/Luganda, American English, and British English. Through comparing the six student groups, we examined their listener intelligibility (actual understanding), listener comprehensibility (feeling of ease or difficulty), accentedness perception (perceiving an accent as native or foreign), and accentedness acceptance (showing a positive or negative attitude toward an accent) of diverse English accents. The results showed that the intelligibility scores and perception/attitude ratings of participants favored the two speakers with privileged accents–the American and British speakers. However, across all six groups, no correlation was detected between their actual understanding of the speakers and their perception/attitude ratings, which often had a strong correlation with their feelings of ease/difficulty regarding the speakers accents. Taken together, our results suggest that the current English education needs innovation to be more aligned with the national syllabus that promotes a global perspective. That is, students need to be guided to improve their actual understanding and sense of familiarity with Global English speakers besides the native accents that they prefer. Moreover, innovative pedagogical work should be undertaken to change Swedish youths’ perceptions and attitudes and prepare them to become open-minded toward diverse English speakers.

The Bubble Noise Technique for Speech Perception Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 1653-1666
Author(s):  
Michael I. Mandel ◽  
Vikas Grover ◽  
Mengxuan Zhao ◽  
Jiyoung Choi ◽  
Valerie L. Shafer
Keyword(s):  
Speech Perception ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
American English ◽  
First Language ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Category Membership ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Lexical Tone ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Perception Training

Purpose The “bubble noise” technique has recently been introduced as a method to identify the regions in time–frequency maps (i.e., spectrograms) of speech that are especially important for listeners in speech recognition. This technique identifies regions of “importance” that are specific to the speech stimulus and the listener, thus permitting these regions to be compared across different listener groups. For example, in cross-linguistic and second-language (L2) speech perception, this method identifies differences in regions of importance in accomplishing decisions of phoneme category membership. This research note describes the application of bubble noise to the study of language learning for 3 different language pairs: Hindi English bilinguals' perception of the /v/–/w/ contrast in American English, native English speakers' perception of the tense/lax contrast for Korean fricatives and affricates, and native English speakers' perception of Mandarin lexical tone. Conclusion We demonstrate that this technique provides insight on what information in the speech signal is important for native/first-language listeners compared to nonnative/L2 listeners. Furthermore, the method can be used to examine whether L2 speech perception training is effective in bringing the listener's attention to the important cues.

The endonormative standards of European English

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rias van den Doel ◽  
Hugo Quené
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Internet Survey ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
European Continent ◽  
Global Ratings ◽  
Native Speakers Of English ◽  
Inner Circle

It has been asserted that a common European variety of English is currently emerging. This so-called “European English” is claimed to be the result of convergence among non-native English speakers, and to reflect a gradual abandonment of Inner Circle norms, which are deemed to be increasingly irrelevant to non-native speakers’ communicative needs. Evidence is so far lacking that Europeans judge each other’s proficiency in English by anything other than native-speaker standards — particularly as regards pronunciation. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to establish whether European non-native speakers of English demonstrated convergence when evaluating the pronunciation of fellow Europeans, and in this respect deviated significantly not only from Inner Circle English native speakers but also from non-European judges. To investigate this possibility, a large-scale Internet survey was carried out in which different groups of users of English (native and non-native, European and non-European, N = 373) evaluated the pronunciation features of five European accents of English, by means of global ratings and detailed responses. The observed convergence of native and non-native judges’ responses does not correspond with emerging endonormative pronunciation standards on the European continent. Hence these findings fail to support the claims about an emerging European English variety.

Collection development and the acquisition of art materials at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

1993 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
A. P. Gakhar
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Broad Context ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Collection Development ◽  
Reference Library ◽  
Sound Recordings ◽  
National Centre ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Rare Books

Collection development plays a pivotal role in all libraries, and should be guided by a library’s purpose and the needs of its users. The Reference Library at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts aims to provide material on all the arts, within a broad context, and acquires material in several formats and in many languages. Materials acquired include rare books, the collections of private scholars, journals, microfilm of mss, visual resources, videos, and sound recordings. It is hoped that some of the problems that have been encountered can be resolved by means of contact and cooperation with other art libraries in Southern and South-East Asia.

Speaker attitude as a predictive factor in listener perception of gay men’s speech

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 206-230 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen L. Mann
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Orientation ◽  
Gay Men ◽  
Predictive Factor ◽  
American English ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Gay Male ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Language Perception

Research on listener identification of sexual orientation (e.g., Gaudio 1994, Piccolo 2008) has produced conflicting results. I argue that one contributing factor to linguistic perception of sexual orientation is the speaker’s assumptions about gay male ways of speaking American English or about specific linguistic features that the speaker believes listeners will associate with “sounding gay” in American English. Interviews I conducted with eight gay men highlight the ways in which positive and negative attitudes become realized in discourse about sounding gay or gay male ways of speaking and its link to other social practices. I then present results from a language perception study, which suggest that negative attitudes toward sounding gay decrease the possibility that a speaker will use linguistic features associated with sounding gay and will, as a result, be less likely to be perceived as gay than gay men who hold positive attitudes toward sounding gay.

The Effects of Clear Speech on American English Listener Perception of Spanish-Accented and Native English Speech

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1698-1709
Author(s):  
Alison Behrman ◽  
Sarah Hargus Ferguson ◽  
Peter Flom
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analog Scale ◽  
American English ◽  
Native English Speakers ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Clear Speech ◽  
Analog Scale ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The Difference

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore (a) the effect of clear speech on intelligibility, ease of understanding, and accentedness in Spanish-accented and native English speakers of American English and (b) the extent to which accentedness predicts intelligibility and ease of understanding. Method Ten adult talkers, five native English speakers and five native Spanish speakers, read aloud 28 short sentences in habitual speech and clear speech. One hundred monolingual English listeners transcribed what they heard and rated ease of understanding using a 10-cm visual analog scale while hearing the sentences in six-talker babble. Then, accentedness (using a visual analog scale) was judged in quiet. Intelligibility was calculated as the number of words transcribed correctly for each sentence. Ten listeners with significant exposure to Spanish-accented speech rated each talker. Each listener heard only one talker, rating half the sentences in clear speech and half in habitual speech, so that no listener heard a sentence more than once for the intelligibility and ease of understanding assessments. Results Clear speech improved intelligibility and ease of understanding for both language groups, with greater improvement in nonnative talkers. Clear speech did not alter accentedness in nonnative talkers but did increase accentedness in native talkers. Accentedness did not strongly predict intelligibility but did predict ease of understanding, although the relationship was nonlinear. Conclusions Listeners who are experienced in hearing Spanish-accented speech derive significant benefits from clear speech. The difference in the predictability of accentedness for intelligibility and ease of understanding contributes further evidence to the difference in underlying cognitive processes for these two variables.

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