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The comprehensibility of non-native speech*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2008

Evangeline Marios Varonis  and
Susan Gass
Evangeline Marios Varonis
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan
Susan Gass
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan
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Abstract

This study presents data collected from both natural settings and controlled experiments in order to describe native speaker responses to non-natives and to discuss what variables of a non-native's speech might elicit these responses. We present the results of three experiments. The first investigates native speaker reactions to requests for information by both native and non-native speakers in a natural setting. Experiment two is a controlled study focussing on two variables of non-native speech—pronunciation and grammar—and the response of native speakers to these variables. Experiment three examines the relationship between these variables and native speaker comprehension. Experiment four focuses on the effect of ordering on comprehensibility. We then discuss the role all of these factors play in the comprehensibility of non-native speech. We suggest that comprehensibility is achieved through a complex interaction of many factors and that it is comprehensibility which largely contributes to the use of foreigner talk by native speakers.

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Type
Articles
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Spring 1982 , pp. 114 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

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