Dynamic paths of intelligibility and comprehensibility: Implications for pronunciation teaching from a longitudinal study with Haitian learners of Brazilian Portuguese
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Jeniffer Imaregna Alcantara de Albuquerque
Abstract
An agenda of studies has shed some light on pronunciation phenomena through the lens of intelligibility and comprehensibility studies (Derwing and Munro 2015; Munro and Derwing 1995) as complex, dynamic and multimodal constructs (Albuquerque 2019; Nagle, Trofimovich, and Bergeron 2019; Nagle et al. 2021; Zielinski and Pryor 2020). This chapter presents the results of a 12- point longitudinal data collection conducted with three Haitian speakers (all of them with different lengths of residence in Brazil and showing different proficiency levels in Portuguese) when listened by two Brazilian listeners (showing different levels of experience in Second Languages and exhibiting different degrees of contact with foreigners) and discusses intelligibility and comprehensibility in the speaker-listener binomial relationship. The study included an oral repetition task (aiming to obtain the listeners’ oral comprehension of the speakers’ productions) and a comprehensibility task (with a 9-point Likert scale). Results indicate individual differences between listener-speaker relationships, as variability may lead to learning (Lowie and Verspoor 2019). Intelligibility and comprehensibility results reveal an influence of the participants’ personal profile, i.e., contact with foreigners (for the listeners), formal versus informal language learning process and amount of time in immersion context (for the speakers). Both constructs varied in the binomial relationships, and they seemed connected to both speakers’ improvement in lexical complexity and pronunciation and listeners’ ability to accommodate new data from the speaker’s productions. Our general findings suggest benefits of a binomial listener-speaker pairing design in the analysis of intelligibility and comprehensibility, having important implications for the studies on language development and L2 pronunciation teaching.
Abstract
An agenda of studies has shed some light on pronunciation phenomena through the lens of intelligibility and comprehensibility studies (Derwing and Munro 2015; Munro and Derwing 1995) as complex, dynamic and multimodal constructs (Albuquerque 2019; Nagle, Trofimovich, and Bergeron 2019; Nagle et al. 2021; Zielinski and Pryor 2020). This chapter presents the results of a 12- point longitudinal data collection conducted with three Haitian speakers (all of them with different lengths of residence in Brazil and showing different proficiency levels in Portuguese) when listened by two Brazilian listeners (showing different levels of experience in Second Languages and exhibiting different degrees of contact with foreigners) and discusses intelligibility and comprehensibility in the speaker-listener binomial relationship. The study included an oral repetition task (aiming to obtain the listeners’ oral comprehension of the speakers’ productions) and a comprehensibility task (with a 9-point Likert scale). Results indicate individual differences between listener-speaker relationships, as variability may lead to learning (Lowie and Verspoor 2019). Intelligibility and comprehensibility results reveal an influence of the participants’ personal profile, i.e., contact with foreigners (for the listeners), formal versus informal language learning process and amount of time in immersion context (for the speakers). Both constructs varied in the binomial relationships, and they seemed connected to both speakers’ improvement in lexical complexity and pronunciation and listeners’ ability to accommodate new data from the speaker’s productions. Our general findings suggest benefits of a binomial listener-speaker pairing design in the analysis of intelligibility and comprehensibility, having important implications for the studies on language development and L2 pronunciation teaching.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- About the Authors V
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
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Part I: Pronunciation development and intelligibility: Implications for teaching and training studies
- Plural formation in English: A Brazilian Portuguese case study 13
- Effect of task, word length and frequency on speech perception in L2 English: Implications for L2 pronunciation teaching and training 41
- L2 accented speech measured by Argentinian pre-service teachers 85
- Dynamic paths of intelligibility and comprehensibility: Implications for pronunciation teaching from a longitudinal study with Haitian learners of Brazilian Portuguese 107
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Part II: L2 pronunciation teaching
- A dynamic account of the development of English (L2) vowels by Brazilian learners through communicative teaching and through explicit instruction 147
- An extra layer of support: Developing an English-speaking consultation program 167
- Putting participation first: The use of the ICF-model in the assessment and instruction of L2 pronunciation 197
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Part III: L2 pronunciation training: Implications for the classroom
- Orthographic interference in the acquisition of English /h/ by Francophones 229
- Improving fossilized English pronunciation by simultaneously viewing a video footage of oneself on an ICT self-learning system 249
- Speech technologies and pronunciation training: What is the potential for efficient corrective feedback? 287
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Part IV: Pronunciation in the laboratory: High variability phonetic training
- On the robustness of high variability phonetic training effects: A study on the perception of non-native Dutch contrasts by French-speaking learners 315
- Effects of perceptual training in the perception and production of heterotonics by Brazilian learners of Spanish 345
- Assessing the robustness of L2 perceptual training: A closer look at generalization and retention of learning 369
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Conclusion
- An overview of pronunciation teaching and training 399
- Index 413
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- About the Authors V
- Contents XI
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: Pronunciation development and intelligibility: Implications for teaching and training studies
- Plural formation in English: A Brazilian Portuguese case study 13
- Effect of task, word length and frequency on speech perception in L2 English: Implications for L2 pronunciation teaching and training 41
- L2 accented speech measured by Argentinian pre-service teachers 85
- Dynamic paths of intelligibility and comprehensibility: Implications for pronunciation teaching from a longitudinal study with Haitian learners of Brazilian Portuguese 107
-
Part II: L2 pronunciation teaching
- A dynamic account of the development of English (L2) vowels by Brazilian learners through communicative teaching and through explicit instruction 147
- An extra layer of support: Developing an English-speaking consultation program 167
- Putting participation first: The use of the ICF-model in the assessment and instruction of L2 pronunciation 197
-
Part III: L2 pronunciation training: Implications for the classroom
- Orthographic interference in the acquisition of English /h/ by Francophones 229
- Improving fossilized English pronunciation by simultaneously viewing a video footage of oneself on an ICT self-learning system 249
- Speech technologies and pronunciation training: What is the potential for efficient corrective feedback? 287
-
Part IV: Pronunciation in the laboratory: High variability phonetic training
- On the robustness of high variability phonetic training effects: A study on the perception of non-native Dutch contrasts by French-speaking learners 315
- Effects of perceptual training in the perception and production of heterotonics by Brazilian learners of Spanish 345
- Assessing the robustness of L2 perceptual training: A closer look at generalization and retention of learning 369
-
Conclusion
- An overview of pronunciation teaching and training 399
- Index 413
