L2 SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY: EFFECTS OF CODA MODIFICATION, DEGREE OF SEMANTIC INFORMATION AND LISTENERS’ BACKGROUND

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present study aims to investigate how the intelligibility of non-target word-final codas is affected by the type of coda modification, the degree of semantic information, and the listeners’ first language (L1). Furthermore, a correlational approach is adopted to examine possible relations between intelligibility and the listeners’ second language (L2) proficiency level, familiarity with speakers’ L1, and length of residence in the speakers’ country. For this purpose, an Intelligibility Test was designed containing utterances with word-final codas that were produced with phonetic characteristics typically found in the English spoken by Brazilians (e.g., palatalization and vowel insertion). This test and a background questionnaire were completed by 38 listeners from different nationalities. The results indicate that certain types of coda modification hinder intelligibility, and that semantic information improves intelligibility in some cases. Furthermore, listeners whose L1 is not typologically similar to Brazilian Portuguese (BP) and who reported being highly familiar with the English spoken by Brazilians tend to perform better on the Intelligibility Test. Overall, this study highlights the importance of bringing to the classroom different varieties of the target language, as a way to boost L2 users’ familiarity with different accents. Contact with different accents should benefit listeners, who are more likely to understand pronunciation patterns that are frequent in the language spoken by a particular group of L2 users. Moreover, accent familiarity is also expected to benefit speakers by bringing awareness about the pronunciation patterns that hinder intelligibility more often and that could be modified to improve communication.