L2 Accent Research Articles

Folk perceptions and evaluations of L2-accented Icelandic with regard to pleasantness and correctness

Abstract Numbers of first-generation L2 speakers of Icelandic have risen substantially in the past three decades in Iceland, with L2 accents now being perceivable in all parts of society. This development sparks questions as to how those accents are perceived and evaluated by L1 speakers of Icelandic, particularly in the light of the role of the Icelandic language as a key element in the construction and maintenance of Icelandic national identity and Iceland’s ideology of linguistic purism, and the fact that there is little formal variation in Icelandic. Drawing on methods and concepts established by folk linguistics, this qualitative study involved five focus groups with thirty-two participants, employing a semi-structured interview guide. The L1-speaker participants were presented with six verbal guises: one L1 speaker and five L2 speakers of Icelandic. The participants elaborated on their perception of those guises according to the concepts of pleasantness and correctness. Several themes emerged as the data were analysed. Results indicate that evaluations of L2 accent are affected by perceptions of listener effort as to both pleasantness and correctness. Perceptions of familiarity with L2 accents emerged as a significant theme in terms of pleasantness, while the results suggest that the correctness concept might not apply to evaluations of L2 speech in the Icelandic context.

Linguistic correlates of second language users’ attitudes to Arabic and Chinese varieties of English: a verbal guise study

ABSTRACT Research into language attitudes suggests that L2 users often hold negative attitudes toward their own and others’ L2 accents. However, less is known about specific features that affect these attitudes. Beinhoff’s study explored consonantal variation and its impact on perceptions of L2 speakers, but this study further examines linguistic correlates of L2 users’ attitudes toward Arabic and Chinese varieties of English. Using the verbal guise method, Arabic and Chinese male and female speakers read a paragraph in English with varying L1 influences. Each sample was rated by 30 L2 listeners on a 6-point semantic differential scale assessing status, solidarity, and dynamism. Phonological and fluency analyses of the samples revealed that non-segmental features, such as prosody, play a more significant role in eliciting positive attitudes toward these English varieties than do segmental features. These findings highlight the importance of suprasegmental aspects in shaping listener perceptions of L2 English speech.

Categorization of second language accents by bilingual and multilingual listeners.

This study examines how listeners categorize second language (L2) accents and how their linguistic background affects this categorization. Ninety-eight adult bilingual and multilingual Greek listeners categorized accents in a familiar (British English)-unfamiliar (Australian English) L2 accent condition. Data were collected through an online survey and analysed using binomial mixed-effects models and signal detection analysis. The results demonstrated that both bilinguals and multilinguals exhibited low performance in the task, potentially due to their decreased familiarity with the Australian English accent and the fact that the two accents are phonetically similar. However, despite both groups' low performance, multilinguals outperformed bilinguals in accent categorization accuracy. This advantage could be attributed to a combination of cognitive and social dynamics. Results expand upon prior research, indicating that exposure to accent variation enhances listeners' abilities to categorize non-native accents. The study provides important theoretical implications for the perception of accents and practical insights into foreign language learning and multilingual communication.

Do accent and input modality modulate processing of language switches in bilingual language comprehension?

We examined how bilinguals process language switches between their first (L1) and second language (L2). Language switching costs (slower responses to language switch than nonswitch trials) appear to arise more systematically in production than in comprehension, possibly because the latter context might sometimes elicit less language coactivation (Declerck et al., 2019). This might reduce language competition and in turn the need for bilinguals to apply language control when processing language switches. Yet even in comprehension, language coactivation may vary depending on variables such as the accent of the speaker (e.g., whether the L2 words are pronounced with an L1 or L2 accent) and input modality (spoken or written). In three experiments conducted during 2021-2022, we tested how unbalanced Mandarin-English bilinguals processed language switches during comprehension and the potential influence of a speaker's accent and input modality. Overall, across settings, participants experienced significant language switching costs. In some conditions, switching costs were larger to L1-Mandarin than to L2-English, an asymmetry consistent with the participants' dominance in L1-Mandarin and the application of language control. However, manipulating accent and input modality did not influence language switches, suggesting they did not impact language coactivation sufficiently to modulate language control. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceptie van een anderstalig accent: Een experimentele studie naar de perceptieve aanpassing aan een exogeen geaccentueerd Nederlands klinkercontrast

This study examines whether Dutch L1 listeners adapt to Italian accented Dutch vowels, and how short-term experience with one L2 speaker’s accent might help these listeners to understand novel words and other L2 speakers with a similar accent. 100 Belgian Dutch L1 listeners were exposed to 40 Dutch target words, in which the front vowel had been replaced by an ambiguous sound in between /ɪ/ and /i/. These stimuli were produced by a female Italian speaker of Dutch. To assess perceptual adaptation and generalization, participants were asked to identify the vowel in five Dutch /ɪ/-/i/ minimal pairs across two speaker conditions: stimuli were either produced by the same female speaker or by a digitally generated male-sounding speaker. For neither speaker did we find perceptual adaptation, hence no generalization to novel situations could be observed. The results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and the need for a detailed background questionnaire for listeners, including information on their familiarity with L2 accents.

The influence of cross-language similarity and transparency on idiom knowledge in non-immersed L2 speakers

Idioms are frequently used by native speakers but pose challenges for L2 learners. In this study, we aimed to identify the key psycholinguistic properties that predict L2 idiom knowledge among non-immersed speakers. A total of 53 Chilean L2 English speakers participated in an online idiom knowledge test, requiring them to recognize the figurative meanings of 99 English idioms and rate their transparency. The results showed that cross-language similarity and transparency, in conjunction with familiarity, significantly predicted L2 idiom knowledge. Conversely, literal plausibility, decomposability, frequency, and predictability did not significantly impact L2 idiom knowledge. Our findings support the Parasitic Hypothesis of vocabulary development and suggest that non-immersed L2 learners heavily rely on their L1 lexical and conceptual networks. The study underscores the importance of semantic transparency and cross-language similarity in L2 idiom acquisition, particularly for learners in non-immersive environments. Our findings advocate for a proficiency-tailored ESL instruction approach. Initially, focus on teaching transparent idioms and those similar to the learners' native language for better comprehension and retention. As proficiency increases, gradually introduce idioms without cross-language parallels to enhance comprehensive linguistic mastery. This approach offers practical insights for language education and applied linguistics.

The contribution of suprasegmental cues to perceived L1 and L2 accent distance

First (L1) and second language (L2) pronunciations that diverge more segmentally from the local accent are rated as more distant. However, fewer studies have addressed relations between suprasegmental features, such as intonation, and accent distance. We examined the relation between perceived accent distance and four suprasegmental measures: time normalized f0 Euclidean distance, mean F0, pitch range, and speaking rate. Thirty adults completed six ladder tasks in which listeners ranked talkers’ perceived distance from the local accent. For each ladder, listeners heard one sentence produced by 24 talkers: one man and one woman from six L1 and six L2 English varieties. Each suprasegmental measure independently predicted distance rankings with a variety of significant interactions. Talkers with higher accent rankings had narrower pitch ranges, lower mean f0, faster speech, and greater f0 Euclidean distance. Furthermore, suprasegmental measures related to accent distance differentially based on syntactic structure. For example, as f0 Euclidean distance increased, accent rankings increased for interrogative sentences, but not for declarative sentences. These data support the need for future studies examining how suprasegmental features impact perception of L1 and L2 accents. [Work supported by NSF grants 1941691 and 1941662].

Listening effort for L2 accents: Adults’ adaptation to Mandarin accented english

Using task-evoked pupillary response (TEPR) and dual-task procedures, prior research has shown that adults recruit additional cognitive resources when processing fully intelligible L2-accented speech compared to speech in their own L1 accent (McLaughlin and Van Engen, 2020; Brown et al., 2020). In this study, we investigated the relationship between three prosodic measures (relative word duration variance, pitch stability, and pitch range) and changes in listening effort for L1 and L2 speakers over the course of an experiment. Using growth curve analysis, we found significant interactions between each of the three measures and trial number, indicating that prosodic factors influence speech adaptation. However, these interactions were in opposite directions for the L1 and L2 speakers. Thus, adult monolingual English listeners rely on prosodic information to adapt to a particular speaker’s voice, but use that information differently based on speaker identity.

Not Batting an Eye: Figurative Meanings of L2 Idioms Do Not Interfere with Literal Uses

Encountering idioms (hit the sack = “go to bed”) in a second language (L2) often results in a literal-first understanding (“literally hit a sack”). The figurative meaning is retrieved later, subject to idiom familiarity and L2 proficiency, and typically at a processing cost. Intriguingly recent findings report the overextension of idiom use in inappropriate contexts by advanced L2 users, with greater L2 proficiency somewhat mitigating this effect. In this study, we tested the tenability of this finding by comparing eye-movement patterns for idioms used literally, vs. literal control phrases (hit the dirt) in an eye-tracking-while-reading paradigm. We hypothesised that if idiom overextension holds, processing delays should be observed for idioms, as the (over)activated but contextually irrelevant figurative meanings would cause interference. In contrast, unambiguous control phrases should be faster to process. The results demonstrated undifferentiated processing for idioms used literally and control phrases across measures, with L2 proficiency affecting both similarly. Therefore, the findings do not support the hypothesis that advanced L2 users overextend idiom use in inappropriate contexts, nor that L2 proficiency modulates this tendency. The results are also discussed in light of potential pitfalls pertaining to idiom priming under typical experimental settings.

The Effect of Multimedia on L2 Idiom Learning: Using Instructional Humorous Videos with Saudi Female EFL Undergraduate Learners

Learning formulaic language, such as idioms, is considered one of the greatest difficulties encountered by EFL learners. The aim of the present study is twofold: first, to examine the effect of using humorous videos on learners’ ability to understand and remember English idioms; second, to investigate students’ attitudes towards learning idioms through humorous videos as a multimedia instructional method. The sample of this study consisted of 50 Saudi female EFL undergraduate learners in the English department at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia. The participants were divided into two groups of 25 students; an experimental group and a control group. The data of the study was collected via three research instruments: pre-test, immediate and delayed post-tests, and an attitudinal questionnaire. A pre-test was given to both groups at the beginning of the study to ensure that they were equivalent. Proceeding this, the experimental group was instructed using humorous videos, while the control group was instructed in the traditional method. Finally, both groups underwent post-tests to measure the performance effects on two levels of idiomatic knowledge: recall and transfer. Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference between the performance of the experimental group and the control group; indicating a positive effect on the experimental group’s recall and transfer. Thus, the study concludes that the use of humorous videos appears to improve learners’ ability to understand and remember English idioms, in addition to indicating that learners hold a positive attitude towards learning idioms through humorous videos as a multimedia instructional method.

Sequence effects and speech processing: cognitive load for speaker-switching within and across accents.

Prior work in speech processing indicates that listening tasks with multiple speakers (as opposed to a single speaker) result in slower and less accurate processing. Notably, the trial-to-trial cognitive demands of switching between speakers or switching between accents have yet to be examined. We used pupillometry, a physiological index of cognitive load, to examine the demands of processing first (L1) and second (L2) language-accented speech when listening to sentences produced by the same speaker consecutively (no switch), a novel speaker of the same accent (within-accent switch), and a novel speaker with a different accent (across-accent switch). Inspired by research on sequential adjustments in cognitive control, we aimed to identify the cognitive demands of accommodating a novel speaker and accent by examining the trial-to-trial changes in pupil dilation during speech processing. Our results indicate that switching between speakers was more cognitively demanding than listening to the same speaker consecutively. Additionally, switching to a novel speaker with a different accent was more cognitively demanding than switching between speakers of the same accent. However, there was an asymmetry for across-accent switches, such that switching from an L1 to an L2 accent was more demanding than vice versa. Findings from the present study align with work examining multi-talker processing costs, and provide novel evidence that listeners dynamically adjust cognitive processing to accommodate speaker and accent variability. We discuss these novel findings in the context of an active control model and auditory streaming framework of speech processing.

The Contribution of Music Abilities and Phonetic Aptitude to L2 Accent Faking Ability

This study examined how second language (L2) speakers’ individual differences in music perception abilities, singing abilities and phonetic aptitude relate to their L2 phonological awareness. To measure participants’ L2 phonological awareness, we used an accent faking paradigm, where participants were asked to speak in their native language (German) while imitating a strong L2 accent (English). We measured their musical abilities with the AMMA test and their singing abilities with two singing tasks and a self-report questionnaire. Their phonetic aptitude was assessed with a combination of phonological short-term memory tasks (forward and backward digit span tasks), and language perception and production tasks, in which participants needed to process and imitate sounds from unfamiliar languages. A regression analysis revealed that singing abilities and phonetic aptitude could predict participants’ English faking abilities. This suggests that being able to sing could help learners produce and memorise highly accurate L2 sounds, although their performance could also partly be explained by innate learning capacities such as phonetic aptitude. This study also proposes a new combination of tests to obtain a well-rounded assessment of individual differences in phonetic aptitude.

What do students in human resource management know about accent bias?

For many second language (L2) speakers, including immigrants, speaking with an L2 accent can be a source of unfair or biased treatment in many workplace contexts. However, apart from research on language learners, there is currently little knowledge as to what the general public, and especially members of professional communities, know about accent and accent bias. Our goal in this study was to examine the intuitive understanding of accent and accent bias by university students in human resource (HR) management as future gatekeepers to gainful employment. We interviewed 14 students across two four-year university HR programs in Canada asking the students about their prior experience with accent bias and exploring their understanding of the broader construct of accent through thematic interview coding. The students reported multiple examples of accent bias, demonstrating a nuanced understanding of accent, where they characterized accent bias as an unconscious phenomenon, highlighted its experiential component, expressed sensitivity to different linguistic sources of accent, emphasized the role of a listener in L2 communication, and generally showed flexibility and tolerance toward accented L2 speech. We discuss these findings in light of prior work on accent awareness and highlight the importance of dedicated accent-focused training for HR professionals.

Speech Intelligibility in Noise: The Role of Talker-Listener Accent Similarity and Second Language Experience

According to previous research, several factors influence speech intelligibility in noise, including talker accent, listener experience, and language proficiency. The current study looked at how L2 experience, accent familiarity, and English IETLS score affect speech intelligibility. To determine whether and how these factors affect L2 learners’ speech intelligibility when understanding speech in noise, the researcher recruited 30 Mandarin speakers with controlled English proficiency (the researcher set a threshold and only recruited participants who were above it). Half of them graduated from Chinese universities and have never travelled outside of China, while others have spent at least one year studying in English-speaking countries. They were asked to listen to 360 sentences recorded by two Mandarin speakers and two native English speakers, and they chose one nonsense sentence among three sentences in each trial. In the testing, all the recordings were added signal-to-noise (SNR) ratios of 0 dB to simulate the noisy environment. The results show a significant speaker effect and IELTS score effect but cannot find a significant listener effect. The researcher came up with four potential reasons for the results and some future directions for the L2 research study.

대학생 학습자의 영어 관용어 이해 과정에서의 어려움

Objectives Using the theoretical viewpoint of lexical transfer, this study investigates what causes Korean (L1) undergraduates’ difficulties in making sense of English (L2) idioms. Methods In order to achieve this research objective, ninety undergraduates in a metropolitan city area participated in a questionnaire-based study using four-type English idioms. The research participants translated twenty English idioms into Korean, which were selected by a Korean reference group depending on the perceived form and meaning similarity between L1 and L2. Then the participants listened to the explanations and answers on them and completed a questionnaire asking the most difficult idiom, the inference process of it, and what they realized about L2 idiom comprehension. Results There are three main findings. First, the idioms perceived the most difficult in translation were in the order of cognate idioms < pragmatic idioms < false friends idioms < L2-only idioms. This shows a tendency that the research participants had difficulty in understanding construal-opaque idioms including false friends idioms and L2-only idioms, whereas they did not have difficulty in understanding construal-transparent idioms including cognate idioms and pragmatic idioms. Second, when the participants did not perceive crosslinguistic meaning similarity on the construal-transparent idioms, they tended to make an arbitrary L1-based inference on them, resulting in translation errors. Third, crosslinguistic form difference could interact with crosslinguistic meaning similarity in the process of perceiving crosslinguistic similarity; nevertheless, the finding that they perceived more difficulty in understanding false friends idioms than pragmatic idioms signifies that the mechanism of lexical transfer is the perceived similarity of meaning between L1 and L2 idioms. Conclusions This study shows that construal opacity is the main cause of the research participants’ difficulties in understanding L2 idioms because their persistent meaning system is rooted in L1. This finding suggests that the popular teaching method of using inference strategy on L2 idiom comprehension is only valid for construal-transparent idioms as universal cognition operates on them, and that conscious effort to broaden L2 idiom repertoire is needed for construal-opaque idioms on which relative cognition operates. In the same vein, raising student consciousness on the crosslinguistic universals and linguistic relativity is also expected.

“New” sounds detract attention from “similar” sounds: “New” and “similar” L2 sounds for English speakers learning French

The pronunciation of a foreign language (L2) is difficult for adult learners, which has been attributed to two classes of L2 sounds: “New” sounds, with unfamiliar articulatory gestures, and “similar” sounds, which are likely to be replaced by native (L1) sounds. For American English (AE) speakers learning French, /ʁ/ is a “new” sound, while the voicing of stops is a “similar” feature. We hypothesized that both “similar” and “new” sounds require attention for correct pronunciation, and that “new” sounds attract more attention than “similar” ones. We predicted that “similar” sounds will be more L1-like when “new” sounds are in the same utterance. Preliminary results for AE speakers producing French utterances with or without /ʁ/ suggest that the presence of /ʁ/ impacted surrounding sounds. In particular, the VOT of voiceless stops was sometimes longer (i.e., more English-like) in sentences with than without /ʁ/. The “new” sound /ʁ/ appears to require attention that is then less available for controlling details of the L2 stops. This result points, seemingly for the first time in the L2 speech literature, to competition between “new” and “similar” sounds for the learner’s attention, which allows positing a previously unexplored cognitive mechanism in L2 accent.

The GoldList Notebook Method: A Study on L2 Vocabulary Learning

Vocabulary knowledge is of paramount importance when learning a second language. It requires effective and practical classroom vocabulary learning methods for long-term acquisition. Specific learning aspects helping the learner remember vocabulary such as spaced repetition and retrieval practice have shown efficacy but are often disconnected from practical in-class methods that can be used repeatedly. This study looked at data from 74 university students in Japan studying English vocabulary with the GoldList Notebook Method, which incorporates spaced learning and retrieval practice. The study was conducted over a nine-week period and consisted of a pre-test of target L2 idioms, a lesson teaching the idioms, the implementation of the GoldList Notebook Method, and a post-test on the target idioms. The data collected were analyzed through fixed effects with a generalized linear model in R version 4.0.3 and R Studio 1.2.5. In addition to quantitative data collected through the pre- and post-tests, qualitative observational data was compiled on the use of the GoldList Notebook Method in the classroom. The findings showed efficacy in using the method and found particular merit to spaced learning over two-week intervals. The study further addresses problems teachers may face implementing the method in the classroom and possible ways to alleviate the issues.

Less Direct, More Analytical: Eye-Movement Measures of L2 Idiom Reading

Idioms (e.g., break the ice, spill the beans) are ubiquitous multiword units that are often semantically non-compositional. Psycholinguistic data suggests that L1 readers process idioms in a hybrid fashion, with early comprehension facilitated by direct retrieval, and later comprehension inhibited by factors promoting compositional parsing (e.g., semantic decomposability). In two eye-tracking experiments, we investigated the role of direct retrieval and compositional analysis when idioms are read naturally in sentences in an L2. Thus, French–English bilingual adults with French as their L1 were tested using English sentences. For idioms in canonical form, Experiment 1 showed that prospective verb-related decomposability and retrospective noun-related decomposability guided L2 readers towards bottom-up figurative meaning access over different time courses. Direct retrieval played a lesser role, and was mediated by the availability of a congruent “cognate” idiom in the readers’ L1. Next, Experiment 2 included idioms where direct retrieval was disrupted by a phrase-final language switch into French (e.g., break the glace, spill the fèves). Switched idioms were read comparably to switched literal phrases at early stages, but were penalized at later stages. These results collectively suggest that L2 idiom processing is mostly compositional, with direct retrieval playing a lesser role in figurative meaning comprehension.

THE RELEVANCE OF CONTEXT IN UNFAMILIAR L2 IDIOM COMPREHENSION

The present study investigates to what extent the effect of context is responsible in facilitating L2 idiom comprehension. Forty students of Italian as a foreign language (L1 Croatian) completed comprehension tests consisting of unfamiliar L2 Italian metaphorical idioms, first presented with only general context and then with a specific context. To date, a large number of studies have described and analysed factors that influence the recognition and comprehension of idioms in one’s native language, and in the last twenty years the same topic has also been investigated for L2 idiom comprehension. However, many of these studies differ in terms of methodology (eye-tracking, control L1 groups, comprehension tests), the aim of the study, and ultimately, the corpus of the study (processing literal vs. metaphorical recognition, unfamiliar vs. familiar idioms, typology of idioms). Through a carefully designed questionnaire, in this study we exclude all possible factors that could influence idiom comprehension and isolate the context factor in the results. Given that in our previous research (2018) we collected highly unfamiliar Italian L2 opaque idioms and idioms without absolute and partial formal equivalents in Croatian, such as essere al verde, essere in gamba, and essere nato con la camicia, we can now psycholinguisticaly analyse to what extent the appropriate context can infer the correct comprehension of Italian L2 idioms.

Understanding the Student Hearing Difficulties toward Native and Non-Native Speaker Accent in L2 Listening Assessment

The accent is one of the characteristic forms of the language used for communication when outside or inside the language learning classroom, then understand difficulty listening to students through the Native and Non-Native Speaker Accent in L2 in the listening assessment requires a more thorough investigation. The purpose of this study to explore how extent students can understand native and non-native speakers with different accents and how they perceive about hearing difficulties toward Native speaker accent and Non-native speaker accent. This research focuses on 12th graders majoring in hospitality at state vocational high school in Bangkalan, Madura. The research data were collected through observation and interviews. The results of this study show that the clarity, speed and accent of native and non-native speakers (American) and non-native speakers (Indonesian) become difficulties and barriers for students to understand and complete their listening tasks. This is because they are used to hearing accents from non-natives speakers rather than accents from native speakers. Furthermore, when students took the American Accent English Test compared to the Indonesian Accent English Test, all scores were much lower