The effects of degrees of Dutch accentedness in ELF and in French, German and Spanish

Abstract

In a verbal guise experiment, 178 listeners with three nationalities (58 French, 59 German and 61 Spanish) listened to samples recorded by female speakers with three degrees of accentedness (strong/slight accented-Dutch and native) in English, French, German and Spanish. Findings indicate that a strong accent had a detrimental effect on understanding and attitudinal evaluations, while a slight accent hardly led to negative effects. A speaker with a strong Dutch accent in English was evaluated as less competent than speakers with a slight or native accent. Speakers with a strong Dutch accent in French, German or Spanish were evaluated as less friendly and less competent than speakers with a native accent.Keywords: foreign accent, ELF, attitudes, accent strength, comprehensibility En un experimento que midió el efecto de la acentuación utilizando la técnica de verbal guise, 178 participantes de tres nacionalidades (58 franceses, 59 alemanes y 61 españoles) escucharon unas muestras grabadas de hablantes femeninos con tres grados de acentuación (con acento holandés muy marcado, ligeramente marcado, y con un acento nativo) en inglés, francés, alemán y español. Los resultados indicaron que un acento muy marcado tenía un efecto negativo en la comprensión y evaluación de actitudes, mientras que un acento ligeramente marcado casi no tuvo efectos negativos. Un hablante con un acento holandés muy marcado en inglés fue evaluado como menos competente que los hablantes nativos o los hablantes con un acento ligeramente marcado. Los hablantes que hablaban con un acento holandés muy marcado tanto en francés, alemán como español fueron considerados como menos amables y menos competentes que los hablantes con un acento nativo.

Effects of degree of accentedness in lecturers’ Dutch-English pronunciation on Dutch students’ attitudes and perceptions of comprehensibility

“…However, Munro & Derwing (1995a, p. 305) established that "Although strength of foreign accent is indeed correlated with comprehensibility and intelligibility, a strong foreign accent does not necessarily cause L2 speech to be low in comprehensibility or intelligibility". Yet other studies have found no differences in comprehensibility due to degrees of accentedness (Hendriks et al, 2015;Munro & Derwing, 1995b;Nejjari et al, 2012).…”

“…Stibbard and Lee (2006) found that non-native listeners with a different L1 than the speaker did not differ from native listeners in their evaluations of the intelligibility of low-proficiency speakers versus high-proficiency speakers. Hendriks et al (2015) found that non-native listeners with a different L1 background than the non-native speaker were able to distinguish a strong non-native accent, but did not distinguish a slight non-native accent from a native accent. In terms of evaluations, the strong non-native accent was evaluated less positively by those non-native listeners than the slight and the native accent, but there were no differences between the slight and the native accent.…”

“…Studies examining the effect of degree of accentedness outside the teaching context have found that stronger non-native accents tend to evoke more negative evaluations than slighter non-native accents in terms of attitude (Brennan & Brennan, 1981a;Cargile & Giles, 1998;Carlson & McHenry, 2006;Hendriks, Van Meurs, & De Groot, 2015;McKenzie, 2008;Nejjari, Gerritsen, Van der Haagen, & Korzilius, 2012;Nesdale & Rooney, 1996).…”

“…To date, few studies have examined degree of accentedness as perceived by non-native listeners (but see Hendriks et al, 2015;Stibbard & Lee, 2006). Stibbard and Lee (2006) found that non-native listeners with a different L1 than the speaker did not differ from native listeners in their evaluations of the intelligibility of low-proficiency speakers versus high-proficiency speakers.…”

“…Buckingham, 2014;Dalton-Puffer et al, 1997), there is no research that compares the evaluation of accented English to the evaluation of the L1. Hendriks et al (2015) showed that L1 speech was considered easier to understand and also led to different attitudinal evaluations than English for non-native listeners with a different L1 than the speakers. To date, no studies seem to have investigated evaluations of accented English and L1 speech by listeners who share the L1 with the speaker.…”