Intelligibility since 1969

Abstract

Smith's general intelligibility paradigm has contributed immensely to furthering the cogent analyses of world Englishes. Earlier works such as Bansal's study of The Intelligibility of Indian English (1969) treated only pronunciation, and regularly invoked comparisons with RP. After Smith elucidated the notion "intelligibility" by introducing the conceptual layers intelligibility, comprehensibility and interpretability, examinations of the forms and functions of world Englishes could be much more usefully carried forward. Many writers have applied the concept(s) in their studies of world Englishes, and some recent work challenges any simplistic understanding of the concepts, e.g. in explicating the mixing of English with other languages in various dimensions. This sociolinguistically realistic perspective speaks to the creative functionality of world Englishes, and to the concern voiced from some quarters about a continuing degeneration of intelligibility across varieties.

Contextualising a pedagogical model for English‐language education in Hong Kong

“…) and the adoption of multiple research methods (Rajadurai ; Munro and Derwing ) in addition to the nature of intelligibility being interactional (Sewell ), because, according to our research findings, the issue of mutual understanding has been extended to interactions involving English speakers across all the three circles. In this respect, future investigations should perhaps also take account of the intelligibility‐comprehensibility‐interpretability scheme (also known as the Smith paradigm), which, Nelson (: 307) argues, have been ‘a good, solid frame on which to hang our investigations and analyses of Englishes as they are spoken’ (see also Nelson ). Particularly under the condition of L2‐L2 interactions, Pickering () suggests that the distinction between intelligibility and comprehensibility has become blurred.…”

Larry Smith and world Englishes

“…It was also of major importance in indicating that intelligibility in all its facets was not simply a problem of articulation for ‘non‐natives’, but was a theoretical and research question of central importance for world Englishes research at a number of levels. This early work on intelligibility in the 1980s also established a foundation for subsequent research that would build upon these early studies, including Smith (, , ), Smith and Christopher (2001) and Smith and Nelson (2006), Berns (), Bhatia (), Y. Kachru (), Nelson (, ). Smith's contribution to this field was innovative and inspiring, as Braj B. Kachru highlighted in his contribution to the symposium on ‘Intelligibility and Cross‐cultural Communication in World Englishes’ that was published by this journal in 2008.…”

Intelligibility and pedagogy

“…What she did not know was that Turkish law prohibited the driver from turning off the light when he has a female passenger. Such incidents are not uncommon to users of any language when interacting with either native or non‐native users, or the outcomes are often unsatisfactory (Berns, ; Nelson, ; Smith & Christopher, ). Everyone is confident in their own ability to get their message across and when it does not happen they conclude it must be the other person's fault.…”