The effects of situational contexts and occupational roles on listeners’ judgements on accented speech

Abstract

Much language attitude research has demonstrated that people make biased judgements based on speakers’ language choice and accent. However, the influence of occupational context on listeners’ perceptions of accented English is largely unknown. This verbal guise study examined the extent to which academic contexts and workforce-related professional contexts affect listeners’ judgements of accented speech. Results revealed that simulated contexts made a significant difference in listeners’ perceptual judgements, with speakers perceived as significantly more comprehensible and acceptable in service-occupational roles than in academic contexts. These findings suggest that listeners’ speech judgements can be heavily influenced by speakers’ situational contexts. The study also provides evidence in support of the fluency principle, showing that listeners may evaluate accented speech more negatively if it requires more processing effort. The findings inform the domains of linguistic stereotyping and listeners’ attitudes towards accented speech.

Listener perception of appropriateness of L1 and L2 refusals in English

“…Specifically, Brazil (1997) and later Pickering (2018) suggested that one's use of suprasegmental features (e.g., intonation, prominence, pitch height) may affect the process of meaning making in interaction and thus affect its outcome. This link between suprasegmental or prosodic features of speech has been made in several recent studies that investigated L2 English users' production of speech acts (e.g., Kang et al, 2023;Taguchi et al, 2022). From a perceptual perspective, Sydorenko et al (2014) examined three L1 English speakers' appropriateness perceptions in L2 requests with a mixed-methods approach, where the raters first listened to the requests produced by L2 speakers, rated them in terms of pragmatic appropriateness, and provided explanations to justify their ratings.…”

“…In speech perception studies, a dominant line of research has explored listener perceptions of accented speech in terms of constructs like accentedness, comprehensibility and acceptability, and linguistic features that contribute to these constructs (e.g., Isaacs & Trofimovich, 2012). Research has suggested that diverse linguistic factors, including pronunciation, lexicogrammar, and discourse organization are related to listeners' perceptual judgments of L2 speech (e.g., Gass & Varonis, 1984;Isaacs & Trofimovich, 2012;Kang et al, 2023;Saito et al, 2017). Thus, moving beyond linguistic features, scholars within the domain of L2 speech perception have argued that communicative competence entails more than one's use of lexical and grammatical structures, emphasizing the role of acoustic features of speech in listeners' perceptions of one's production (Bachman & Palmer, 2010;Hymes, 1971).…”

“…Accordingly, scholars have investigated different aspects of EIL affecting communicative success. Speech scholars have been interested in speech constructs like accentedness, comprehensibility, and acceptability (e.g., Kang et al, 2023). On the other hand, pragmatic researchers have examined lexico-grammatical features of EIL that contribute to first language (L1) English listeners' perceptions of appropriateness in speech acts (e.g., Taguchi, 2006).…”

Familiarity Determines Whether Accent Affects Attitudes and Behaviors of the Listener

“…Kang et al found that the situational contexts in which speakers are heard play a pivotal role in influencing how listeners perceive their accented speech. When speakers are heard in service-oriented occupational settings, they are judged to be much more intelligible and acceptable compared to when they are heard in academic environments [ 9 ]. Bresnahan et al argue that ethnic identity could influence the effect of accent.…”