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The Effect of Non-Native English Accent on Second Language Listening Comprehension

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1110078, PP. 1-12

Subject Areas: Language Education

Keywords: Non-native English Accent, Second Language Comprehension, Accent Type, Accent Degree

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Abstract

The current study takes Chinese-, Japanese-, and French-accented English as speech stimuli to investigate the influence of accent type as well as accent degree on second language listening comprehension by 40 university students. Results show that first, regarding the influence of accent type, under the mild accent, the intelligibility of Chinese-accented English is the highest, followed by Japanese-accented English and that of French-accented English is the lowest while the comprehensibility of three types of accent is not statistically different. Under the strong accent, the intelligibility of Chinese-accented English is the highest, followed by French-accented English and that of Japanese-accented English is the lowest. Besides, the comprehensibility of three types of accent is statistically different. Second, regarding the influence of accent strength, it has no significant influence on the intelligibility and comprehensibility of Chinese-accented English, while the intelligibility and comprehensibility of mild-accented speech are higher than those of strong-accented speech for Japanese-accented English. Additionally, for French-accented English, the accent strength exerts no significant impact on its intelligibility, while comprehensibility is higher in mild-accented speech than in strong-accented speech. The above results could provide references for second-language theoretical research and teaching practice.

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Hu, W. , Zhao, K. , Zhao, S. , Zhi, F. , Xiao, C. and Yang, J. (2023). The Effect of Non-Native English Accent on Second Language Listening Comprehension. Open Access Library Journal, 10, e078. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1110078.

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