Associating speaker variables with English pronunciation ratings in Spanish tertiary education

Abstract

Although the use of English in the ever-changing context of bilingual tertiary education has been extensively studied to date, pronunciation research in the field is still scarce. This paper aims at providing empirical data regarding the hypothesised impact of bilingual education programmes on pronunciation performance operationalised through the notions of intelligibility, comprehensibility and foreign-accentedness. For this purpose, 60 advanced speakers of English from a Spanish university (enrolled both in bilingual and monolingual degree courses) were recorded and assessed by 330 international English speakers from 30 different L1s. Both the speakers and the listeners completed a basic sociodemographic questionnaire. The independent variables were related to the participants’ (1) reported exposure to bilingual instruction at the previous and current levels of education, as well as (2) their overall level in English and (3) their exposure to English abroad. The findings showed that bilingual education was in no way associated with differences in pronunciation ratings. However, the speakers’ level and their experience abroad were correlated with the comprehensibility and foreign-accentedness scores. The results are not only consequential for the understanding of the (lack of) impact of bilingual variables on pronunciation, but they also allow to examine the adequacy of the CEFR phonological descriptors.