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LX speech tends to receive less favourable judgments, which can be attributed to its non-standard linguistic properties (e.g. foreign accents, grammatical errors). However, the evaluations of LX speech could also be affected by listeners’ expectations and their individual differences. This study extends research on the role of listeners’ expectations (cued by speech accent) and personality traits (Big Five), by examining the degree to which and how accent, grammaticality and listener personality interact to determine L1 listeners’ evaluations of LX speech. Sixty L1 English speakers (30 female) rated the acceptability of 40 English speech stimuli in a British or Polish accent; half of the stimuli were filled with English article errors. The listeners’ personality traits were self-reported via a short questionnaire of the Big Five factors. The significant interaction of accent, grammaticality and listener personality suggests that the occurrence of grammatical errors is less penalised in foreign-accented speech (vs. native-accented speech), unless the L1 listeners are highly conscientious or highly extraverted. The theoretical (expectation mismatch effect, Interpersonal Circumplex model), methodological (considering non-linear models and the moderation of contextual factors for personality effects) and potential practical implications (awareness training of personality effects) of the results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most models of language comprehension assume that the linguistic system is able to pre-activate phonological information. However, the evidence for phonological prediction is mixed and controversial. In this study, we implement a paradigm that capitalizes on the fact that foreign speakers usually make phonological errors. We investigate whether speaker identity (native vs. foreign) is used to make specific phonological predictions. Fifty-two participants were recruited to read sentence frames followed by a last spoken word which was uttered by either a native or a foreign speaker. They were required to perform a lexical decision on the last spoken word, which could be either semantically predictable or not. Speaker identity (native vs. foreign) may or may not be cued by the face of the speaker. We observed that the face cue is effective in speeding up the lexical decision when the word is predictable, but it is not effective when the word is not predictable. This result shows that speech prediction takes into account the phonological variability between speakers, suggesting that it is possible to pre-activate in a detailed and specific way the phonological representation of a predictable word. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Listeners use more than just acoustic information when processing speech. Social information, such as a speaker's perceived race or ethnicity, can also affect the processing of the speech signal, in some cases facilitating perception ("social priming"). We aimed to replicate and extend this line of inquiry, examining effects of multiple social primes (i.e., a Middle Eastern, White, or East Asian face, or a control silhouette image) on the perception of Mandarin Chinese-accented English and Arabic-accented English. By including uncommon priming combinations (e.g., a Middle Eastern prime for a Mandarin accent), we aimed to test the specificity of social primes: For example, can a Middle Eastern face facilitate perception of both Arabic-accented English and Mandarin-accented English? Contrary to our predictions, our results indicated no facilitative social priming effects for either of the second language (L2) accents. Results for our examination of specificity were mixed. Trends in the data indicated that the combination of an East Asian prime with Arabic accent resulted in lower accuracy as compared with a White prime, but the combination of a Middle Eastern prime with a Mandarin accent did not (and may have actually benefited listeners to some degree). We conclude that the specificity of priming effects may depend on listeners' level of familiarity with a given accent and/or racial/ethnic group and that the mixed outcomes in the current work motivate further inquiries to determine whether social priming effects for L2-accented speech may be smaller than previously hypothesized and/or highly dependent on listener experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study builds on Flege et al. (2006) and evaluated the influence of chronological age and length of residence in North America on degree of foreign accent in first language (L1) Korean by Korean adults and children in immigrant settings. The adult (A4/6) and child (C4/6) immigrants lived in the host countries for 4 or 6 years, respectively. Their Korean utterances were compared to those of age-matched controls in Seoul, Korea. The purpose was to examine the cross-linguistic influence of English on the degree of foreign accent in L1 Korean by the immigrants. Eighteen native-speaking judges rated four Korean utterances for overall degree of perceived foreign accent. Both adult and child immigrants were more strongly foreign accented than the controls. However, (1) stability of L1 Korean was greater (less foreign-accented) for the adult than child immigrants; and (2) there was no significant difference between the A4 and A6, and C4 and C6 groups. This suggests that by the time the Korean immigrants lived in North America for four years, they have diverged audibly from the predominantly monolingual speakers in Seoul. The results have implications for L1 maintenance/attrition and plasticity in spoken language processing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims and objectives: This article investigates naturalistic acquisition of a second dialect (D2), comparing the global accent of speakers of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) exposed to European Portuguese (EP), either as children or as adults (early vs late bilectals). The focus is on the predicted advantage of an early age of onset of the D2, as well as possible crosslinguistic influence from the D2 onto the first dialect (D1). Design and methodology: The study is an Accent Rating Task, where 50 raters judged the global accent of 30 BP speakers living in Portugal (15 early + 15 late bilectals), who were recorded in both BP and EP modes. Using a 6-point Likert-type scale, the raters judged whether the speakers sounded Brazilian or Portuguese and also indicated how certain they were about their judgment. Data and analysis: The data consisted of two 10-second audio snippets from each speaker, one in BP and the other in EP mode (altogether 60 items). In addition, there were 10 control items produced by native BP and EP speakers. Several mixed-effects models compared the target groups to each other and to the monolectal controls. Findings and conclusions: Both the early and late bilectals were rated as Brazilian in BP mode, but the degree of rater certainty was significantly lower for early than for late bilectals, which was again lower than for BP monolectals. In EP mode, early bilectals were perceived as Portuguese (though the raters were less certain than when rating EP monolectals), while late bilectals were judged as Brazilian. Originality: The study adds to the novel but increasing body of research on speakers of two closely related varieties. Significance and implications: This research illustrates that bilectalism displays a number of similarities with bilingualism, specifically that there may be significant effects of age of onset of the D2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The processing of a foreign accent is known to increase cognitive load for the native listener, establish psychological distance with the foreign-accented speaker, and even influence decision-making. Similarly, research in the field of emotional processing indicates that a foreign accent may impact the native listener's emotionality. Taking these aspects into consideration, the current study aimed to confirm the hypothesis that a foreign accent, compared to a native accent, significantly affects the processing of affective-laden words. Methods: In order to test this hypothesis, native Spanish speakers participated in an online experiment in which they rated on a Likert scale the valence and arousal of positive, neutral and negative words presented in native and foreign accents. Results: Results confirm a foreign accent effect on emotional processing whereby positively valenced words are perceived as less positive and negatively valenced words as less negative when processed in a foreign accent compared to a native accent. Moreover, the arousal provoked by emotion words is lesser when words are processed in a foreign than a native accent. Discussion: We propose possible, not mutually exclusive, explanations for the effect based on linguistic fluency, language attitudes and the linguistic context of language acquisition. Although further research is needed to confirm them, these explanations may be relevant for models of language comprehension and language learning. The observation of a reduction in emotionality resulting from a foreign accent is important for society as important decisions are made by representatives with diverse language and accent backgrounds. Our findings demonstrate that the choice of the language, which entails speaking in a native or a foreign accent, can be crucial when discussing topics such as the consequences of wars, pandemics, or natural disasters on human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is an increasing interest in cross-linguistic influences of the second language (L2) on the first (L1), but its communicative impact remains to be elucidated. This study investigates how L2 learners’ L1 pronunciation is perceived as foreign-accented and (in) comprehensible as a function of their L2 learning experience and proficiency levels. Methods Read speech of 154 L1 Japanese learners of L2 English in the J-AESOP corpus was examined, where approximately one-third of them had lived in English-speaking countries and the rest had never lived outside of Japan. Their L1 speech was rated by another group of native Japanese listeners for accentedness and comprehensibility (from October 25, 2022 to August 20, 2023), while their L2 speech was previously rated by native American English listeners for nativelikeness or proficiency. The speakers’ vowel acoustics were also examined. Results More proficient L2 speakers were perceived as more foreign-accented in their L1, but only if they had lived overseas; their length of residence abroad predicted the degree of perceived accentedness. In contrast, more proficient L2 speakers were consistently perceived as more comprehensible in the L1, regardless of prior overseas experience. Acoustic analyses indicated that perceived accentedness is associated with a clockwise chain shift of all vowel categories in the vowel space. It was also revealed that the dispersion, rather than compactness, of vowel production contributed to perceived comprehensibility, although the degree of L1 vowel dispersion did not predict L2 proficiency. Conclusions The overall results suggest two main conclusions. First, perceptible L1 foreign accent likely results from L1 disuse rather than L2 interference, thereby L1 pronunciation differs from native norms at a system-wide rather than category-specific level. Second, L2 learning has a positive influence on perceived L1 comprehensibility, rather than individuals with clearer and more comprehensible L1 speech being inherently better L2 learners.

Second-language learners often encounter communication challenges due to a foreign accent (FA) in their speech, influenced by their native language (L1). This FA can affect rhythm, intonation, stress, and the segmental domain, which consists of individual language sounds. This study looks into the segmental FA aspect, exploring listeners' perceptions when Spanish interacts with English. Utilizing the SIAEW corpus, which replaces segments of English words with anticipated Spanish-accented realizations, we assess the ability of non-native listeners to discriminate degrees of accent across male and female voices. This research aims to determine the impact of voice consistency on detecting accentedness variations, studying participants from Japanese and Spanish. Results show that, while listeners are generally able to discriminate degrees of foreign accent across speakers, some segmental transformations convey a more clear distinction depending on the phonological representations of the native and accented realisations on the listener's system. Another finding is that listeners tend to better discriminate degrees of accent when words are more native-like sounding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is an increasing interest in cross-linguistic influences of the second language (L2) on the first (L1), but its communicative impact remains to be elucidated. This study investigates how L2 learners’ L1 pronunciation is perceived as foreign-accented and (in) comprehensible as a function of their L2 learning experience and proficiency levels. Methods Read speech of 154 L1 Japanese learners of L2 English in the J-AESOP corpus was examined, where approximately one-third of them had lived in English-speaking countries and the rest had never lived outside of Japan. Their L1 speech was rated by another group of native Japanese listeners for accentedness and comprehensibility (from October 25, 2022 to August 20, 2023), while their L2 speech was previously rated by native American English listeners for nativelikeness or proficiency. The speakers’ vowel acoustics were also examined. Results More proficient L2 speakers were perceived as more foreign-accented in their L1, but only if they had lived overseas; their length of residence abroad predicted the degree of perceived accentedness. In contrast, more proficient L2 speakers were consistently perceived as more comprehensible in the L1, regardless of prior overseas experience. Acoustic analyses indicated that perceived accentedness is associated with a clockwise chain shift of all vowel categories in the vowel space. It was also revealed that the dispersion, rather than compactness, of vowel production contributed to perceived comprehensibility, although the degree of L1 vowel dispersion did not predict L2 proficiency. Conclusions The overall results suggest two main conclusions. First, perceptible L1 foreign accent likely results from L1 disuse rather than L2 interference, thereby L1 pronunciation differs from native norms at a system-wide rather than category-specific level. Second, L2 learning has a positive influence on perceived L1 comprehensibility, rather than individuals with clearer and more comprehensible L1 speech being inherently better L2 learners.

Lects constitute prototype categories (Gitte Kristiansen 2003). This implies that central/prototypical speakers are more easily identified as members of a specific lect (Kristiansen et al. 2018). The prototypicality of elements within natural categories have generally been measured through direct questions, indirect questions, or reaction time. Nonetheless, abstract categories (e.g., foreign accents) may be difficult to examine via questions. Following previous research that analyzed the use of the Levenshtein Distance (LD) (Vladimir I. Levenshtein 1965) to predict foreign-accentedness (Martijn Benjamin Wieling et al. 2014) or the intelligibility of foreign accents (Jurado-Bravo 2021), this study explores the use of LD as a predictor of prototypicality of Spanish-accented English. The LD between 50 Spanish speakers of English and different prototype benchmarks were calculated. These recordings were used as speech stimuli in an accent identification test. Reaction time measures were collected and correlated to the calculated LD. Results suggest that the LD to the stereotypical prototype can partly predict the prototypicality of Spanish-accented English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionThe processing of a foreign accent is known to increase cognitive load for the native listener, establish psychological distance with the foreign-accented speaker, and even influence decision-making. Similarly, research in the field of emotional processing indicates that a foreign accent may impact the native listener's emotionality. Taking these aspects into consideration, the current study aimed to confirm the hypothesis that a foreign accent, compared to a native accent, significantly affects the processing of affective-laden words.MethodsIn order to test this hypothesis, native Spanish speakers participated in an online experiment in which they rated on a Likert scale the valence and arousal of positive, neutral and negative words presented in native and foreign accents.ResultsResults confirm a foreign accent effect on emotional processing whereby positively valenced words are perceived as less positive and negatively valenced words as less negative when processed in a foreign accent compared to a native accent. Moreover, the arousal provoked by emotion words is lesser when words are processed in a foreign than a native accent.DiscussionWe propose possible, not mutually exclusive, explanations for the effect based on linguistic fluency, language attitudes and the linguistic context of language acquisition. Although further research is needed to confirm them, these explanations may be relevant for models of language comprehension and language learning. The observation of a reduction in emotionality resulting from a foreign accent is important for society as important decisions are made by representatives with diverse language and accent backgrounds. Our findings demonstrate that the choice of the language, which entails speaking in a native or a foreign accent, can be crucial when discussing topics such as the consequences of wars, pandemics, or natural disasters on human beings.

When faced with intelligibility problems, listeners resort to contextual information. The present study explores the use of lexical context by listeners when identifying segments with various degrees of foreign accent. Native English listeners identified words into which a single Spanish-accented segment from a 5-step continuum had been inserted. Listeners also identified vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel sequences containing the same accented segments. While lexical context helped, the lexical advantage was largely independent of degree of foreign accent, with a slight benefit only for the most accented consonants. To examine the influence of listeners' first language on the usefulness of lexical context, a second experiment was carried out with Spanish, Japanese and Czech non-native listeners. As was the case for native listeners, there was little evidence that a lexical context helps more for foreign-accented than native segments. Normalised for word familiarity, overall non-native identification patterns were comparable to native listeners' perceptions. Listeners' first language phonetic inventory had an effect on identification levels, particularly in the case of vowels. Lexical context benefits for vowel identification can be explained by their generally less categorical processing, their realisational variability in English, and symbol mapping issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined listeners' evaluations of first (L1) and second language (L2) English speech in work-related contexts. Ninety-six English-speaking listeners from Calgary rated audio recordings of 12 English speakers (6 L1 English, 6 L1 Tagalog) along three continua capturing one professional (competence), one experiential (treatment preference), and one linguistic (comprehensibility) dimension. The audio recordings additionally differed in terms of job prestige (high vs. low) and performance level (high vs. low). Compared to English speakers, Tagalog speakers were rated as less competent and comprehensible overall, and listeners wished to be treated more like the clients in scenarios recorded by English than Tagalog speakers, with all effects magnified for speakers with heavier foreign accents. Nonetheless, listeners generally evaluated English and Tagalog speakers similarly in low-prestige and in low-performance scenarios, but rated low performance less negatively in low-prestige positions. Findings demonstrate highly nuanced accent bias in work-related contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to explore how much a speaker of English as a foreign language can mask one’s accent by performing voice disguise toward a native-like accent, and what implications it might bring forward. For the Methods, we conducted three experiments, (a) both the native and the foreign groups produced authentic voices, (b) the native group performed authentic voice and the foreign group performed disguised voice, and (c) a group of native listeners of English rated the degree of foreign accent from experiments a and b. The results showed evidence of correlation between the ratings and authentic voices. Nevertheless, they remained somewhat inconclusive for the disguised voice. It may be concluded that the more the Brazilian speaker approaches the L1-English target accent when voice disguising, the harder it is for the listener to recognize his/her L2-English accent.

This paper investigated immigrant groups' attributes as factors inhibiting immigrants' career development and progression vis-à-vis local-born-mainstream-groups. Drawing on the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) of warmth and competence, we examined perceptual cues (surface-diversity) and factors that act as career progression barriers. Results revealed race (white, non-white) and accents, rather than immigrant-status, were largely responsible for perceiving barriers. Immigrant non-white managers had more limited access than immigrant white managers to informal networking, mentoring and career support irrespective of their immigrant-status. Immigrant managers did not identify perceptual biases as factors that shape their unequal access to career development opportunities, suggesting a gap between experienced and perceived bias. SCM's interdisciplinary theoretical implications are discussed contributing to diversity management practices in international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the perception of segmental boundaries in native English and Japanese accents in terms of foreign accentedness, intelligibility and discrimination accuracy. Five American English vowels /ɪ, æ, ɑ, ə, ɝ/ and seven consonants /r, l, v, θ, f, t, k/ were extracted from English and Japanese words produced by an American English-Japanese bilingual speaker, and manipulated, with the acoustic properties shifting gradually from 100% Japanese to 100% American English using segmental foreign accent and gradation techniques. Perception tests were conducted online with native American English speakers, and groups of Japanese speakers with either low or high English proficiency. All three groups showed a negative correlation between the degree of foreign accent and intelligibility. Also, there was a greater reduction in intelligibility due to acoustic deviation from the native norm in consonants than in vowels. The results suggest that more standard-like accent does not necessarily improve intelligibility, thus highlighting the importance of FA research in terms of segmental accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this review is to make some critical comments on the book entitled “Entonaciones del español. Acentos dialectales y acentos extranjeros” edited by Francisco José Cantero Serena y Dolors Font-Rotchés. The book presents and describes in detail a theme that has been little studied and little treated in the bibliography dedicated to the Spanish phonetics. It is the question of the dialectal accent and the foreign accent, two aspects of the Spanish intonation less described. Furthermore, this text pretend to highlights the importance of this type of research not only to develop scientific knowledge on the subject but also, and above all, to offer concrete tools for the teaching of foreign languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the relationship between foreign accent, identity, accent discrimination, and second language acquisition (SLA). In this regard, the paper first examines the concepts of interlanguage and transfer, ongoing debates of nativeness and intelligibility principles as sound goals for language learning and teaching environments, and current perspectives on accent reduction, as well as the position of foreign accent in SLA. The next section introduces accent as an identity marker and discusses this concept, followed by an examination of the social dimensions of foreign accent and how it can affect identity formation. This includes discussions of how native and non-native speakers, and their foreign accents, are perceived by others in different contexts, the effects of foreign accents on NNSs' social experiences, sense of belonging, and their attitudes towards NS varieties. Then, accent discrimination and bias, particularly native listeners' perceptions of non-native speech, reported instances from employment situations, legal responsibilities and consequences involved are discussed based on the findings of reports and empirical studies. The paper also emphasizes the necessity of a more nuanced understanding of foreign accent and its role in language learning, as well as the importance of addressing the social dimensions of accent in language pedagogy. The study concludes with pedagogical implications of accent-related queries and ideas for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hunglish is a term for Hungarian native speakers’ English pronunciation. It is a well recognisable and quite homogeneous accent, which is thoroughly described in the literature of second language acquisition. However, this paper proposes that Hungarian speakers living in Romania use a phonologically different Hunglish compared to those living in Hungary. The study is built on direct speech recordings made with 30 Hungarian speakers descending from various parts of Transylvania. Their accent is confronted with the pronunciation of 15 speakers from Hungary, who participated in the same reading experiment. Results indicate that the English pronunciation of the two groups mostly share the same phonetic and phonological features. Only a few persistent phonological differences can be identified; for instance, English open back vowels [ʌ, ɒ, ɑ] are replaced with Hungarian [ɒ] by the Transylvanian informants, and with [a] by the speakers from Hungary; Transylvanian informants preserve more English schwas and diphthongs due to their L2 Romanian, etc. The differences basically originate in the fact that Transylvanian speakers’ interlanguage is much more heterogeneous than that of Hungarians’, i.e. Transylvanians speak a substandard version of Hungarian as L1, they speak a Transylvanian dialect, they speak Romanian at high level as L2, and they usually speak further foreign languages as well beyond English; these varieties all affect their foreign accent. The paper takes account of the most important characteristics of Transylvanian Hunglish, with a synchronic phono-logical analysis, and a contrastive analysis with the general phonological properties of Hunglish found in the literature.

Copyright of Studies in Hispanic & Lusophone Linguistics is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although current approaches to second language (L2) pronunciation underscore that instruction should concentrate on pronunciation features that help learners be more intelligible (and not necessarily more native like), there is little empirical evidence as to what those features are, especially in languages other than English. To address this gap, this exploratory study examined phonetic predictors of listener‐based dimensions—namely, intelligibility, comprehensibility, and foreign accent—in L2 Spanish speech. Samples were taken from 42 Spanish learners of varying proficiency while performing a picture description task, rated for global measures by 80 native Spanish listeners, coded for phonemic errors, and analyzed phonetically for pronunciation features that previous research has reported as challenging for English‐speaking learners. Mixed‐effects models were fit to the data to examine relationships between the phonetic features and the listener‐based dimensions. Results revealed that rising intonation and diphthongization of word‐final /o/ predicted intelligibility, rising intonation predicted comprehensibility, and a variety of features were associated with foreign accent. Overall, results confirmed that non‐target‐like production of L2 pronunciation, including areas known to be challenging for Spanish learners, does not necessarily lead to intelligibility and comprehensibility issues. Based on these findings, we make recommendations regarding what features should be prioritized in L2 pronunciation instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Second-language learners often encounter communication challenges due to a foreign accent (FA) in their speech, influenced by their native language (L1). This FA can affect rhythm, intonation, stress, and the segmental domain, which consists of individual language sounds. This study looks into the segmental FA aspect, exploring listeners’ perceptions when Spanish interacts with English. Utilizing the SIAEW corpus, which replaces segments of English words with anticipated Spanish-accented realizations, we assess the ability of non-native listeners to discriminate degrees of accent across male and female voices. This research aims to determine the impact of voice consistency on detecting accentedness variations, studying participants from Japanese and Spanish. Results show that, while listeners are generally able to discriminate degrees of foreign accent across speakers, some segmental transformations convey a more clear distinction depending on the phonological representations of the native and accented realisations on the listener’s system. Another finding is that listeners tend to better discriminate degrees of accent when words are more native-like sounding.

Abstract Explicit pronunciation instruction has been shown to be effective in improving language learners’ pronunciation, yet it is not clear whether the same can be said about implicit pronunciation instruction. In addition, the role of orthography in improving language learners’ pronunciation is yet to be fully understood. Thus, this research examined the contribution of extensive listening combined with orthography to the improvement of language learners’ pronunciation. Ninety Saudi learners of English were randomly allocated to three groups and offered different types of instructions: (A) extensive listening only; (B) extensive listening with orthography; and (C) a control group. Similar utterances were collected from the three groups before and after the instructions. The utterances were then presented randomly to a group of native English listeners for global foreign accent rating. Small, though non-significant, improvement was observed for both experimental groups. This may be attributed to the relatively short duration of exposing the learners to the aural input. Semi-structed interviews, with a sample of the learners from the experimental groups, showed that they had positive opinions regarding extensive listening with orthography for the improvement of their pronunciation. Further research may use longer period to examine whether extensive listening along with orthography can result in significant improvement of language learners’ pronunciation.

Copyright of CIRCULO de Linguistica Aplicada a la Comunicacion is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined listeners' evaluations of first (L1) and second language (L2) English speech in work-related contexts. Ninety-six English-speaking listeners from Calgary rated audio recordings of 12 English speakers (6 L1 English, 6 L1 Tagalog) along three continua capturing one professional (competence), one experiential (treatment preference), and one linguistic (comprehensibility) dimension. The audio recordings additionally differed in terms of job prestige (high vs. low) and performance level (high vs. low). Compared to English speakers, Tagalog speakers were rated as less competent and comprehensible overall, and listeners wished to be treated more like the clients in scenarios recorded by English than Tagalog speakers, with all effects magnified for speakers with heavier foreign accents. Nonetheless, listeners generally evaluated English and Tagalog speakers similarly in low-prestige and in low-performance scenarios, but rated low performance less negatively in low-prestige positions. Findings demonstrate highly nuanced accent bias in work-related contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the desire to attract skilled immigrants to English-speaking countries in the Global North, business environments in these nations may see the increased presence of workers who speak English with a foreign accent. While organizations may tout this linguistic diversity, there is a concern that a foreign accent interferes with successful business communication. This apparent issue can result in a lack of employment opportunities for foreign-accented professionals and has also created a rise in private accent reduction programs that seek to improve the employability of these professionals. What is understated or even omitted in the discussion of these trends is the impact of racialization. First, the (lack of) employability of foreign-accented workers may be determined by a set of racial hierarchies in which some bodies are perceived as better for work than others. Furthermore, the notion that simply reducing an accent increases one's employability ignores racialized power structures that truly prevent the employment of certain immigrants. Through the lens of raciolinguistic ideologies, which look at the intermingling of language and race, this article explores the above issues by arguing that foreign accent discrimination and accent reduction are indeed racialized and thus perpetuate the inequality experienced by immigrant professionals in business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bohemistyka is the property of Instytut Filologii Slowianskiej Uniwersytetu im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This study examined the attitudes of postgraduate biology students of three top-ranked Russian universities towards the foreign accents of non-native English-speaking lecturers. Fifty participants responded to a questionnaire, the main purpose of which was to explore the listeners’ perceptions of professors’ accents and their influence on students’ ability to concentrate on and comprehend the lecture material. The research included a quantitative analysis of gathered descriptive data. The results of the study show Russian students’ tolerant attitudes to foreign accents of non-native lecturers and demonstrate their readiness to comprehend non-standard English-medium speech of non-native representatives of the international natural sciences academic community.

Research with nonnative speech spans many different linguistic branches and topics. Most studies include one or a few well-known features of a particular accent. However, due to a lack of empirical studies, little is known about how common these features are among nonnative speakers or how uncommon they are among native speakers. Moreover, it remains to be seen whether findings from such studies generalize to lesser-known features. Here, we demonstrate a quantitative approach to study nonnative accent features using Dutch-accented English as an example. By analyzing the phonetic distances between transcriptions of speech samples, this approach can identify the features that best distinguish nonnative from native speech. In addition, we describe a method to test hypotheses about accent features by checking whether the prevalence of the features overall varies between native and nonnative speakers. Furthermore, we include English speakers from the United States and United Kingdom and native Dutch speakers from Belgium and The Netherlands to address the issue of regional accent variability in both the native and target language. We discuss the results concerning three observed features. Overall, the results provide empirical support for some well-known features of Dutch-accented English, but suggest that others may be infrequent among nonnatives or in fact frequent among natives. In addition, the findings reveal potentially new accent features, and factors that may modulate the expression of known features. Our study demonstrates a fruitful approach to study nonnative accent features that has the potential to expand our understanding of the phenomenon of accent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that second language words are learned faster when they are similar in phonological structure or accent to the words of an individual's first language. Many major theories suggest this happens because of differences in frequency of exposure and context between first and second language words. Here, we examine the independent contribution of accent and phonological structure on the speed of word learning and on the depth of semantic encoding while controlling for frequency of exposure and context. Fifteen participants learned novel words associated with abstract shapes in a paired associates task. The words systematically varied in their accent and phonological structure. Learning speed was measured for each word and the depth of semantic encoding was measured via a novel manipulation of the N300 ERP component in a Picture Recognition Task of the learned items. Both non-native structure and accent slowed word learning and differences in the N300 effect indicated that semantic encoding was shallower for words with a non-native than native phonological structure, despite almost ceiling levels of accuracy. These results are consistent with a model of second language learning that proposes both accent and phonological structure influence how fast and deep new language vocabulary is learnt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined Americans' attitudes toward standard American English (SAE) and nine, non-Anglo foreign accents: Arabic, Farsi, French, German, Hindi, Hispanic, Mandarin, Russian, and Vietnamese. Compared to SAE speakers, all foreign-accented speakers were rated as harder to understand, more likely to be categorised as foreign (rather than American), and attributed less status and solidarity. However, not all foreign accents were equally denigrated on status and solidarity traits. Instead, an evaluative hierarchy emerged, with speakers of some varieties (e.g. French, German) consistently rated more favourably than speakers of others (e.g. Arabic, Farsi, Vietnamese). This variation in language attitudes was associated with variation in social categorisation – i.e. the higher the percentage of nonstigmatized foreign categorizations (i.e. Anglosphere, Western Europe) for a given foreign variety, the more favourably speakers of that variety were rated – and listeners' processing fluency – i.e. the easier speakers of a given foreign variety were to understand, the more favourably they were rated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since vowel production is more gradient than consonant production, we divided the 129 non-English vowel productions into near misses, such as raising or lowering of an English vowel, and far off productions, such as front rounded vowels. It occupies a space between Finnish /æ, e, ø/, and errors from both groups saw participants fronting, raising, or lowering this English vowel in the absence of one clear Finnish vowel on which to map this phonetic category. Vowel errors and consonant errors were subcategorized according to classes of vowels and consonants as described in section 2.4. Keywords: foreign accent; English; Finnish learners; segmental errors; Zweitsprachakzent; Finnische Lerner; Segmentale Fehler; acento extranjero; inglés; estudiantes finlandeses; errores segmentales; fremmed accent; engelsk; finske lørnere; segmentelle udtalefejl EN foreign accent English Finnish learners segmental errors DE Zweitsprachakzent Finnische Lerner Segmentale Fehler ES acento extranjero inglés estudiantes finlandeses errores segmentales DA fremmed accent engelsk finske lørnere segmentelle udtalefejl 109 141 33 03/11/22 20220301 NES 220301 1 Introduction When speaking a foreign language (L2), one's pronunciation may exhibit a foreign accent. However, despite this shortcoming, our study contributes valuable insight into segmental aspects of Finnish-accented English, as it is the first study to relate segmental errors to foreign accent for L1 Finnish speakers of English. [Extracted from the article]

The article presents the results of a study on the impact of the Russian accent on the prospects for integration into the host German community. The respondents were Russian-speaking immigrants living in Germany. According to the results of the survey, it was found that more than 50% of respondents faced accent-based discrimination. Therefore, further analysis of the data was carried out within two groups respondents with experience of discrimination (Group B) and without such experience (Group A) on the material of answers concerning the reasons for immigration, the duration of stay in the Federal Republic of Germany, the specifics of studying and the frequency of use of the German language. The analysis of the responses received indicates that immigrants who have not studied German as a specialized subject in higher education programs or in German schools, rarely use German in everyday communication, and have no motivation to integrate into the host community are more susceptible to discrimination. It should be noted that the factor of the duration of stay on the territory of the German-speaking state does not significantly affect the accent expression. Based on the results obtained, it is concluded that for the successful integration of an immigrant into the host society it is necessary to form phonological and phonetic competence.

Explicit pronunciation instruction has been shown to be effective in improving language learners' pronunciation, yet it is not clear whether the same can be said about implicit pronunciation instruction. In addition, the role of orthography in improving language learners' pronunciation is yet to be fully understood. Thus, this research examined the contribution of extensive listening combined with orthography to the improvement of language learners' pronunciation. Ninety Saudi learners of English were randomly allocated to three groups and offered different types of instructions: (A) extensive listening only; (B) extensive listening with orthography; and (C) a control group. Similar utterances were collected from the three groups before and after the instructions. The utterances were then presented randomly to a group of native English listeners for global foreign accent rating. Small, though non-significant, improvement was observed for both experimental groups. This may be attributed to the relatively short duration of exposing the learners to the aural input. Semi-structed interviews, with a sample of the learners from the experimental groups, showed that they had positive opinions regarding extensive listening with orthography for the improvement of their pronunciation. Further research may use longer period to examine whether extensive listening along with orthography can result in significant improvement of language learners' pronunciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Degree of foreign accent and intelligibility are weakly related. • A segmental analysis provides an explanatory basis. • Some strongly-accented segments, but not all, lead to a drop in intelligibility. • Intelligibility loss is linked to the segments' status in the native language. The relationship between strength of foreign accent and intelligibility is not straightforward. This relationship resists a simple characterisation due in part to the multiplicity of cues that carry accent in the word- and sentence-level materials typically used in the study of accent. One of the principal conveyors of accent is the phonetic segment. The current study attempts to isolate this segmental contribution to foreign accent and consequently measure the relationship between segmental accent and intelligibility for listeners with differing linguistic correspondence to the target and accented language. English, Spanish and Czech listeners identified English words in which the initial consonant was either intact, or had been replaced by a Spanish-accented counterpart; in a second task, they rated the accent strength of the same tokens. All speech material was produced by an English-Spanish bilingual talker. Overall, Spanish listeners displayed a smaller loss of intelligibility due to the accented segment than native English listeners, while the Czech cohort experienced the largest intelligibility loss. However, the relationship between accent strength and intelligibility loss was not linear, varying with phoneme identity and its role in a listener's first language. These findings suggest that how accented and intelligible a sound is depends strongly on the interactions between the phonological systems of speakers and listeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Misunderstood ironic intents may injure the conversation and impede connecting with others. Prior research suggests that ironic compliments, a rarer type of irony, are considered less ironic when spoken with a foreign accent. Using more ecologically-valid stimuli with natural prosodic cues, we found that this effect also applied to ironic criticisms, not just to ironic compliments. English native speakers (N = 96) listened to dialogs between Canadian English speakers and their foreign-accented peers, rating targets on multiple scales (irony, certainty in the speaker's intent, appropriateness, and offensiveness). Generalized additive mixed modelling showed that 1) ironic comments were rated lower for irony when foreign-accented, whereas literal comments were unaffected by accent; 2) the listener's political orientation, but not empathy or need for cognitive closure, modulated irony detection accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of linguistic expectations, social distance, cultural stereotypes, and personality differences.

This study examined how talker accentedness affects the recognition of noise-vocoded speech by native English listeners and how contextual information interplays with talker accentedness during this process. The listeners included 20 native English-speaking, normal-hearing adults aged between 19 and 23 years old. The stimuli were English Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) and Revised Speech Perception in Noise (R-SPIN) sentences produced by four native Mandarin talkers (two males and two females) who learned English as a second language. Two talkers (one in each sex) had a mild foreign accent and the other two had a moderate foreign accent. A six-channel noise vocoder was used to process the stimulus sentences. The vocoder-processed and unprocessed sentences were presented to the listeners. The results revealed that talkers’ foreign accents introduced additional detrimental effects besides spectral degradation and that the negative effect was exacerbated as the foreign accent became stronger. While the contextual information provided a beneficial role in recognizing mildly accented vocoded speech, the magnitude of contextual benefit decreased as the talkers’ accentedness increased. These findings revealed the joint influence of talker variability and sentence context on the perception of degraded speech.

This paper explores whether Serbian EFL learners can recognise which nationality stands behind a particular foreign accent, with the aim to investigate if a foreign accent could be regarded as a nation’s specific brand. Having in mind that a foreign accent assumes the L1 phonetic and phonological features that occur while speaking an L2, we found it interesting to analyse if it was possible for Serbian EFL learners to “see through” the foreign accent and recognise the mother tongue of the speaker who speaks with the particular accent. The empirical study consisted of a quasiexperiment incorporating a testing procedure during which Serbian EFL students had the task to circle the country from which the speaker whose recording they had just heard came from. A short survey about the testing followed the main procedure. The chosen population of students included both students with prior formal knowledge of English international varieties, as well as students who were laypersons in this regard. The obtained results were statistically analysed and showed the strikingly high percentage of correct recognition of a speaker’s national descent, especially within the group of students who took the Varieties of English course taught at the Faculty of Philology and Arts in Kragujevac. However, taking into consideration that the other group of students likewise had a relatively high percentage of foreign accent recognition, we are led to conclude that a foreign accent can indeed be regarded as a specific brand of a nation. Since our findings show that accurate accent identification is positively correlated to the estimated degree of foreign accentedness, the study is also relevant in its pedagogical aspects as the results point to foreign language learners’ diverse perceptions and are indicative of their knowledge of linguistics in general.

This paper explores attitudes toward Jordanian Arabic-accented English among native and non-native speakers of English. Three groups of listeners (native English speakers, Jordanian Arab specialists and non-specialists in English) were asked to rate three groups of speakers (a group of native English speakers and two groups of Jordanian Arabic bilinguals) reading a short story in English on the degree of foreign accentedness, friendliness, pleasantness and clarity. The results showed that the Jordanian Arabic speakers, especially those with a lower level of English, were perceived less favourably than the native speakers. Furthermore, the English native listeners generally had more favourable perceptions than the non-native listeners with regard to the non-native speakers. The degree of foreign-accentedness was highly correlated with attitudes toward non-native speakers, especially among the non-native speakers themselves. The results confirm that a native English accent is preferred over non-native accents.

Background: There is an increasing interest in cross-linguistic influences of the second language (L2) on the first (L1), but its communicative impact remains to be elucidated. This study investigates how L2 learners' L1 pronunciation is perceived as foreign-accented and (in) comprehensible as a function of their L2 learning experience and proficiency levels., Methods: Read speech of 154 L1 Japanese learners of L2 English in the J-AESOP corpus was examined, where approximately one-third of them had lived in English-speaking countries and the rest had never lived outside of Japan. Their L1 speech was rated by another group of native Japanese listeners for accentedness and comprehensibility (from October 25, 2022 to August 20, 2023), while their L2 speech was previously rated by native American English listeners for nativelikeness or proficiency. The speakers' vowel acoustics were also examined., Results: More proficient L2 speakers were perceived as more foreign-accented in their L1, but only if they had lived overseas; their length of residence abroad predicted the degree of perceived accentedness. In contrast, more proficient L2 speakers were consistently perceived as more comprehensible in the L1, regardless of prior overseas experience. Acoustic analyses indicated that perceived accentedness is associated with a clockwise chain shift of all vowel categories in the vowel space. It was also revealed that the dispersion, rather than compactness, of vowel production contributed to perceived comprehensibility, although the degree of L1 vowel dispersion did not predict L2 proficiency., Conclusions: The overall results suggest two main conclusions. First, perceptible L1 foreign accent likely results from L1 disuse rather than L2 interference, thereby L1 pronunciation differs from native norms at a system-wide rather than category-specific level. Second, L2 learning has a positive influence on perceived L1 comprehensibility, rather than individuals with clearer and more comprehensible L1 speech being inherently better L2 learners., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2024 Yazawa K et al.)

An increasingly diverse labor pool has increased the likelihood that HR recruiters will encounter job seekers who speak with different dialects. Prior studies have investigated the effects of applicant dialect on employment selection outcomes. In this article, we merge this research with stereotyping, "modern racism," and sociolinguistics literatures toformulate propositions surrounding two questions of interest: (1) Do prospective employers categorize job applicants using sociolinguistic cues? and (2) If so, what impact does this categorization have on evaluations of applicant employability? We believe this research can provide significant insights into HR practice as discriminatory behaviors change and adapt to fit social norms, particularly in employee recruitment and selection contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]