scholarly journals The expectation mismatch effect in accentedness perception of Asian and Caucasian non-native speakers of English

Linguistics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 581-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ksenia Gnevsheva

Abstract Previous research on speech perception has found an effect of ethnicity, such that the same audio clip may be rated more accented when presented with an Asian face (Rubin, Donald L. 1992. Nonlanguage factors affecting undergraduates’ judgments of nonnative English-speaking teaching assistants. Research in Higher Education 33(4). 511–531. doi: 10.1007/bf00973770). However, most previous work has concentrated on Asian non-native English speakers, and Caucasian speakers remain under-explored. In this study, listeners carried out an accentedness rating task using stimuli from first language Korean, German, and English speakers in 3 conditions: audio only, video only, and audiovisual. Korean speakers received similar accentedness ratings regardless of condition, but German speakers were rated significantly less accented in the video condition and more accented in the audiovisual condition than the audio one. This result is explained as an expectation mismatch effect, whereby, when the listeners saw a Caucasian speaker they did not expect to hear a foreign accent, but if they actually heard one it was made more salient by their expectation to the contrary.

2011 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Koulouriotis

The ethical considerations of three education researchers working with nonnative English-speaking participants were examined from a critical theory standpoint in the light of the literature on research ethics in various disciplines. Qualitative inquiry and data analysis were used to identify key themes, which centered around honor and respect for participants’ voices and the researchers’ perceived limitations of university research ethics boards (REBs) to address adequately their concerns when working with non-native English speakers.


Author(s):  
Abdullah Coşkun

Although English is now a recognized international language and the concept of native speaker is becoming more doubtful every day, the empowerment of the native speakers of English as language teaching professionals is still continuing (McKay, 2002), especially in Asian countries like China and Japan. One of the latest examples showing the empowerment of the native English speakers comes from Turkey planning to embark on a project to hire 40.000 native English - speaking teachers (NESTs) to collaborate with the local non - native English teachers (NNESTs) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes in Turkey. This study tries to reveal the preliminary reactions of pre - service NNESTs about this project through data obtained from open - ended surveys. The content analysis of the data showed that even before the project was initiated, most of the participants objected to it. Although some of the participants favored the project as they believed that the NESTs might be more helpful for students to improve speaking skills and to increase their cultural awareness, the majority of the participants held negative attitudes towards the project mainly because of employment and pedagogical concerns.


Pragmatics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binmei Liu

Abstract Previous studies have found that but and so occur frequently in native and non-native English speakers’ speech and that they are easy to acquire by non-native English speakers. The current study compared ideational and pragmatic functions of but and so by native and non-native speakers of English. Data for the study were gathered using individual sociolinguistic interviews with five native English speakers and ten L1 Chinese speakers. The results suggest that even though the Chinese speakers of English acquired the ideational functions of but and so as well as the native English speakers, they underused the pragmatic functions of them. The findings indicate that there is still a gap between native and non-native English speakers in communicative competence in the use of but and so. The present study also suggests that speakers’ L1 (Mandarin Chinese) and overall oral proficiency in oral discourse affect their use of but and so.


Author(s):  
Nancy D Bell

AbstractHumor can often carry an implicit negative message and thus be potentially dangerous to use. In addition, it is culturally and linguistically complex and sophisticated. Because of these things, it poses a challenge for L2 (second language) speakers and we might expect to see attempts at humor failing and causing offense in intercultural interaction. This paper reports on a study that examined humor in interaction between native and non-native speakers of English and found that humor did not seem to be a cause of conflict because of adjustments speakers made to their speech and their situated interpretations of meaning. In general, taboo topics and potentially dangerous forms of humor were avoided and humor was carefully contextualized. Native speakers reported being careful about the vocabulary they used in creating humor and both sides appeared to approach humor in intercultural communication prepared to accommodate the other and with an attitude of leniency.


1993 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Hawkins ◽  
Richard Towell ◽  
Nives Bazergui

White (1989) has shown that L1 English-speaking learners of L2 French appear to be more successful in acquiring the postverbal location of French manner and frequency adverbs than L1 French-speaking learners of L2 English are in acquiring the preverbal location of English manner and frequency adverbs. One implication of recent work by Pollock (1989) on the structure of English and French clauses is, however, that the task of acquiring the placement of manner and frequency adverbs should be the same for both sets of learners, because English provides learners with as much positive syntactic evidence for preverbal manner/frequency adverbs as French does for the postverbal location of such adverbs. The problem, then, is to explain why there should be this difference in success. On the basis of a detailed study of the developing intuitions of English-speaking adult learners of L2 French it is suggested in this article that the English-speakers' success is only apparent. Both groups of learners have great difficulty in resetting a parametrized property of the functional category Agr, but the English- speaking learners of French are able to make use of nonparametrized properties of Universal Grammar to handle surface syntactic differences between English and French, properties which are not so readily available to the French-speaking learners of English. It is suggested that this finding is in line with an emerging view about the role of parametrized functional categories in second language acquisition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
Bethany Peters ◽  
Michael E. Anderson

This study reports on a survey designed to understand the experiences of faculty and staff who work with non-native speakers of English (NNESs) at a U.S. public research university. Over 1,500 faculty and staff responded to the survey, and the findings highlight their perspectives on the benefits of having non-native English speakers on campus, as well as the challenges that they experience in teaching and advising this population of students. We conclude with a discussion about possible resources and strategies that may provide enhanced support for NNES and the faculty and staff who work with them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 334-341
Author(s):  
Yunisrina Qismullah Yusuf

Language is dynamic. And thus, for English as an international language, it keeps on changing and developing over time. Now there are more non-native English speakers compared to native speakers around the world. Thus, intelligibility becomes fundamental in the world of Englishes. Besides teaching in the English accent (i.e. American or British English) as part of the educational policy given by schools, respectively, non-native English teachers must also be prepared to inform their non-native students of the Englishes around the world. Moreover, research in identifying the varieties of English spoken in different areas around the world are rapidly progressing. Especially in the field of acoustic phonetics, in which the studies here assist researchers and teachers to identify vowel distinctions among different group of English speakers and the extent of the first language (L1) influence. Specifically, the analysis in phonological variations can help teachers deal with variation in varieties of English. Understanding the varieties of English that exist today and having mutual intelligibility can improve communication with different people from different countries around the world.


1993 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Jeanne Haak ◽  
Rieko Marie Darling

Speakers with limited English proficiency (LEP) usually produce a combination of articulation errors and differences in the prosodic patterns of English. There are abundant measures of articulation, but few objective measures of prosodic performance. The Tennessee Test of Rhythm and Intonation Patterns (TRIP) was selected as a potential measure for distinguishing the prosodic patterns of native and non-native English. First, the TRIP was given to 12 native speakers of Asiatic languages and 12 native speakers of English. The performances of the two groups did not differ significantly, suggesting that the TRIP was not a definitive measure of prosodic differences in English. Second, a group of listeners was asked to identify native versus non-native English speakers based only on selected stimuli from the TRIP and a short sentence of comparable length. The listeners were significantly better able to identify native and non-native speakers when listening to the sentence than when listening to the TRIP items. Clinical application of this information in working with LEP clients is discussed.


English Today ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raja Ram Mehrotra

English has been established in India for well over two centuries, and is now both its major lingua franca and ‘window on the world’. Some Indianisms are however little known beyond South Asia and are liable to be regarded by native speakers of English as ‘deviant’ in various ways. Here, a project is described in which a set of distinctive and representative Indian English expressions was shown to a group of native English speakers who were asked to comment on them. The list includes both distinctive words (such as face-cut, freeship, and weightage) and distinctive senses of universally used words (such as chaste, see, and tempo). The responses are discussed and a summarizing conclusion presented.


1990 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Schneider ◽  
Ulla Connor

Topical structure analysis (TSA), a text-based approach to the study of topic in discourse, has been useful in identifying text-based features of coherence. It has also been used to distinguish between essays written by groups of native English speakers with varying degrees of writing proficiency (Witte, 1983a, 1983b). More recently, TSA has distinguished between higher and lower rated ESL essays, but with different results from those found with native speakers of English (Connor & Schneider, 1988). The present study replicated the previous ESL study of two groups of essays written for the TOEFL Test of Written English with three groups of essays. Findings indicate that two topical structure variables, proportions of sequential and parallel topics in the essays, differentiate the highest rated group from the two lower rated groups. We offer explanations for the results and propose that all occurrences of a particular type of topic progression do not contribute equally to the coherence of a text.


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