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商学論集 第76巻第4号 2008年3月

【論 文】

Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learners'English:The Case of Hong Kong Chinese Listeners

MATSUURA Hirokoand CHIBA Reiko

Abstract

The study examines the comprehensibility of L2 English,specifically aiming to identify possiblelinguistic factors that would affect the judgment of comprehensibility by nonnative English-speakinglisteners. Six Japanese female students studying English at a university in Japan provided speechstimuli,while221 Cantonese-speaking students in Hong Kong listened to their English. The resultsindicated that among clarity of pronunciation,accent and fluency,pronunciation clarity was the bestpredictor of comprehensibility level.and that fluency and comprehensibility correlated significantly.Accentedness on the other hand;did not appear to influence listeners'comprehensibility judgment

very strongly. Other fmdlngs included that stt1dents with a higher English proficiency tended to bemore comprehensible,and that listeners who had experienced listening to Japanese English did riotdemonstrate better understanding. Furthermore,those listeners who perceived competence level oftheir own English as higher tended to indicate higher comprehensibility.

[Keywords:Comprehensibility, Japanese learners' English, Hong Kong Chinese listeners,Accent,Fluency,Pronunciation clarity]

1. Introduction

English has been gaining the status of lingua franca in Asia,where a number of different languages are spoken. People in Asia speak English with regional varieties in terms of such linguistic features as accents,vocabulary and,pragmatics_ How well do those people commu- nicate with each other in English? What can improve mutual intelligibility?

Intelligibility and comprehensibility are notions commonly employed to determine the extent to which utterances are actually understood by listeners. However,Smith and Nelson (1985)suggested that intelligibility and comprehensibility be assigned distinguished meanings, defining the former as word/utterance recognition and the latter as the understanding of word/ utterance meaning. Based on these definitions,Derwing and Munro (1997,2005) and Munro and Derwing (1999)have given specific frameworks to intelligibility and comprehensibility for analytical purposes. According to these authors,intelligibility is the extent to which a listener actually understands an utterance,and is measured by transcribing a speaker's utterances and its accuracy is scored. Comprehensibility,on the other hand is a listener's perception of how difficult or easy it is to understand an utterance. For the measurement of comprehensibility, a Likert-type questionnaire with a nine-point rating scale was used,and the listener judgment of comprehensibility is consistently referred te as perceived comprehensibility.

Several researchers have conducted empirical studies to examine intelligibility and/or comprehensibility of different English varieties,aiming to identify factors that would facilitate

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商 学 論 集 第76巻第4号

or impede listeners'level of understanding. One such factor was language backgrounds,which were particularly relevant to the question of whether or not listeners of a particular native language could better understand when English utterances from a speaker of the same language background as listeners were given. No consistent agreement on the results has yet been obtained_ Tauroza and Luk (1997),for example,explored relative intelligibility of RP-accent- ed English and Hong Kong-accented English for Hong Kong students,and found there was no significant difference in the extent of their comprehension of these varieties. Major,Fitzmaur- ice,Bunta,and Balasubramanian (2002)investigated the effects of native language accent on English comprehension. Unlike Tauroza and Luk (1997),who did not identify native language benefit,they found that Spanish speakers scored significantly higher when listening to English with their native language accent;whereas Chinese speakers scored lower when listening to Chinese-accented English_ Bent and Brad1ow (2003) found that English speech from a rela- tively high proficient nonnative speaker of the same native language background was as intelligible as speech from a native speaker_ Muro, Derwing, and Morton (2006) asked listeners from several different language backgrounds (i_e.,Cantonese,Japanese,Mandarin,and English) to evaluate accented English utterances from Cantonese, Japanese, Polish and Spanish. An interesting finding was that regardless of native language background, the listener groups showed moderate to high correlations on intelligibility scores and ratings of perceived comprehensibility as well as accentedness. They argued that properties of the speech itself might be potent in determining how L2 speech is intelligible for listeners of diverse language backgrounds_

There appeared to be still many other important factors,particularly on the side of L2 speakers,that would help enhance intelligibility and/or comprehensibility levels for listeners. Anderson-Hsieh and Koehler (1988) found that an increase in rate from normal to fast decreased comprehension tea greater degree with respect to the most heavily accented speaker than it did for the other speakers. Hahn (2004)investigated the effect of when primary stress was placed inappropriately. The results of her study revealed that native English speakers recalled significantly more content when they listened te a nonnative speech with correct primary stress than when it was aberrant or missing. On the other hand,Munro and Derwing (1999)maintained that a strong foreign accent might not necessarily reduce the comprehensibil- ity of L2 speech. Another important speaker factor that appeared to affect listeners'compre- hensibility judgment wasfhlency,which was typically seen as a speech characteristic influenced by repetitions,pauses,repairs,and so on (Derwing,Thomson,& Munro,2006). A research conducted by Derwing,Rossiter,Munro,and Thomson (2004)revealed that comprehensibility ratings and those for fluency were highly correlated,suggesting fluency to be a good indicator of comprehensibility.

With regard to the side of listeners,on the other hand,familiarity with a particular English variety and a particular speaker was seen as being potent in determining the extent of intelligibility and/or comprehensibility. Gass and Varonis (1984)examined which of the four variables most facilitates native-speaker comprehension:familiarity with the topic,familiar- ity with nonnative-speaker speech in general,familiarity with a particular nonnative accent, and familiarity with a particular nonnative speaker. The results revealed that the familiarity with the topic facilitated comprehension greatly,and that the other variables also had facilitat- ing effects. Matsuura,Chiba,and Fujieda (1999)examined intelligibility and comprehensibi1-

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MATSUURA& CHIBA:Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learners'English

itv of two different native varieties for nonnative listeners. Interestingly,familiarity with a particular English speaker was not necessarily a good indicator of intelligibility assessed via a dictation task,whereas it contributed greatly to perceived comprehensibility ratings. The results of these two studies might suggest that researchers should carefully treat familiarity effects when examining intelligibility and/or comprehensibility of a language.

This research aims to explore factors that might predict comprehensibility of Japanese English perceived by ESL users,or English speakers in the Outer Circle (Kachru,1989). The research questions addressed are as follows:

(1) What is the relationship between Japanese students'English proficiency and comprehen- sibility assessed by Hong Kong students?

(2) Which is the best predictor of comprehensibility ratings:accentedness, fluency, or clarity of pronunciation?

(3) Does comprehensibility perceived by those students who had an experience of listening to Japanese English differ from comprehensibility perceived by students without such an experience?

(4) How does listeners'English proficiency relate to comprehensibility ratings?

Method

2.1 Speakers

The speech samples used in the study were recorded by six Japanese university students_ All ot them were female and majored in International Relations at a university in Tokyo and the average age was t9.2. They had learned English for at least eight years which included studying in the U.S. for five months. The TOEIC scores of three students were at the600 level (655,650,and650)while those of the other three were at the400 level (480,430,and425). One of the research questions refers to the relationship between the speakers'proficiency and their comprehensibility for Hong Kong students. Therefore,two groups of Japanese speakers with different English proficiency levels were selected to participate in the study, Accordirlg to the data issued by the ETS-TOEIC (2005),the average score of Japanese students (high schoo] lovel and above)was 429,and those students at the 400 level in the present study might be considered representing samples of Japanese university students_

2.2 Stimuli

The investigators of this study decided to use a reading passage taken from the intermedi- ate level EFL textbook (Chiba,Tabei,& 0℃onnor,2002)_ The passage used in this study consisted of 95 words,and was assumed fairly easy for the readers to understand content (see Appendix A)_ We did not use spontaneous speech stimuli because previous studies pointed out that L2 comprehensibility is often affected by syntactic and semantic errors made the speaker (varonis& Gass,1982;Kashiwagi,Snyder,& Craig,2006). The recording sessions were held in a sound-treated room with audio equipment.

2.3 Listeners

The listeners were 221 university students (88 males,132 females,and l unknown)who

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商 学 論 集 第76巻第4号

majored in various fields such as arts and science at a university in Hong Kong. The average age of the listeners was t9.5_ Their background of English education is as follows:135 students (61_1%)began to learn English at preschool;69 (31.2%)at elementary school;12 (5.4%)at junior high school ;1(0_5%)at senior high school;3(1_4% )at university. Over90 % of the listeners have studied English for more than t3 years. The medium of instruction at the university was primarily Cantonese with some English. When they were asked to evaluate at which level of English that they considered themselves to be,2(9% )considered it as native- like,26(11_8%)advanced,122 (55.2%)high-intermediate,67(30.3%)low intermediate,and 0 begimling. About 70% of them considered their own English level as high-intermediate or higher while only 30% indicated low-intermediate.

2.4 Procedure

The listeners were given the questionnaire sheet that contained the scale to indicate their judgment of the recorded speech,and the questions about themselves such as educational backgrounds and experiences in English (Appendix B). In addition,they were given the transcript of the passage to read in order to be familiar with the content as well as to avoid excessive attention to word recognition while listening to the tape. Before the listening session began,the transcripts were collected so that the listeners would pay full attention to the passage that were being read.

The tape was played with intervals between speeches so that the listeners had time to indicate their judgment for each speech sample. The listeners judged the comprehensibility of each speech by using a 7-point Likert scale from l strongly disagree'to7 strongly agree'on these 4 items from the questionnaire sheet:1)I understand easily what this speaker read,2) This speaker had a strong foreign accent,3)This speaker read the passage fluently,and4)The tone of voice and pronunciation were clear.

Results

Table l shows average ratingsof overa11comprehensibility,foreign accent,fluency,clarity of pronunciation for each speaker. It was found that the Japanese students'English was perceived as moderately easy to somewhat difficult to understand depending on the speaker_ The averages for perceived comprehensibility ranged from 5.36(Speaker 6)to3.08(Speaker 5)_ The range for accentedness ratings was from 4.38(Speaker 4)to3.85(Speaker5),which indicated at]of the six Japanese speakers were perceived to have some foreign accent but not a very strong one_ An interesting finding here was that the speakers with higher comprehensi- bility rates (Speakers4and6)were perceived to have a little stronger foreign accent than the rest of the speakers_ In terms of fluency,two speakers (Speakers4and6)shared the highest averages of 5.62,which suggested that the Hong Kong students perceived their English to be moderately f;iuent. On the other hand,the rest of the speakers tended to be perceived as somewhat less fluent. The average ratings for these speakers were all below neutral4_00. As for pronunciation clarity,the Hong Kong listeners tended to consider Speakers 4 and6,with their averages 5.10and5.01 respectively,had read the passage moderately clear. The pronun- ciation of the other four speakers,on the other hand,appeared to be perceived as less clear. Their averages ranged from 3_23 (Speaker 2)to2_80 (Speaker 5).

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MATsUURA& CHIBA: Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learners'English

Table t Descriptive statistics

comprehensibilityM SD

accentedness M SD

f uencyM SD

clarityM SD

TOEIC600-levelSpeaker4 (655)Speaker6 (650)Speaker2 (650)

TOEIC400-levelSpeaker 1 (480)Speaker 3 (430)Speaker 5 (425)

5.22 5.36 3.64

3.45 3.21 3.08

1.16 1_12 1.27

1.27 1.29 1.32

4。38 4.18 4.04

3.90 3.94 3.85

1.38 1.43 1.86

1.88 1.95 1.99

5.62 5.62 3.59

3.04 3.34 3.30

1.02 0.95 1.34

1.22 1.33 l.24

5.10 5.01 3.23

3.09 2.96 2.80

1.06 1.08 1.]7

1.91

1.21 1.18

Figures in the parentheses show TOEIC scores of the speakers

The possible effect of Japanese English proficiency on comprehensibility judgment by Hong Kong students was then examined, As explained earlier in this paper,Speakers2,4,and8 held the600_level of TOEIC score,and the comprehensibility ratings given for these speake「s we「e higher than those for Speakers 1,3,and 5,who had the 400-level. The comprehensibility average was 4_72 for the 600-level students and 3.24 for the 400-level group. Te sco the statistical difference between these two groups,a t-test was run (the alpha level was adjusted to Ol25 by a Bonferronj correction),and the results indicated that the averages of these g「cuPS were significantly different (t=24.096, df = 220,p<.0001)_ These results suggested Spoken English of those students with a higher level of proficiency was more comprehensible fo「 Hong Kong students.

However,English proficiency was not always the best predictor of comprehensibility ratings While Speakers 6and2had the same TOEIC score of 650,the average comp「ehenSi- bjljty rates for these speakers were quite different:5.36and3_64 respectively. These 「eSultS suggested that there appeared to be some important speaker factors which might influence the comprehensibility judgment of listeners.

The relationships between comprehensibility and possible influential factors of accented-ness,fluency,and pronunciation clarity were then examined. Here comprehensibility rating was considered as a dependent variable. Table2 provides the results of correlational Studies. It was found that comprehensibility and f;iuency correlated significantly for all six speake「S,and so did comprehensibility and clarity of pronunciation. In terms of accentedness,weak CO「「ela- tjons were found for Speaker 1 and Speaker 5 only. It was likely that both fluency and pronunciation clarity were more influential on comprehensibility than accents_

Then which of these three factors could best predict comprehensibility ratings? Inc「do「 to solve this problem,ratings for six speakers were pooled,and a step-wise regression analysis was conducted on the averages of those ratings combined. Table3 shows the results,Which indicated clarity of pronunciation was a factor that best predicted comprehensibility. Cla「itv of pronunciation alone explained45% of the variance,which was quite large.

The third research question was whether or not a Hong Kong student's past expo「ienCe with Japanese English affected his/her comprehensibility judgment. Among 221 participants, 175 answered,in their profile questionnaire,that they had heard a Japanese pc「Son Speak

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Table 2

商 学 論 集

Correlations between overa11compreher1sibility and three factors

第76巻第4号

accentedness fluency clarity

Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Speaker 4 Speaker 5

Speaker 6

0.142' 0.0830.1250.0670.231'' 0.085

9

6

4

2

c,-9

566204

3

4

3

5

--:

f-)

00

0000

66一,o703

404911

56656、6

00

0000

p<:.05,''p<.01

Table3 Results of step-wise regression analysis

step variable entered adjusted R-square beta t

pronしnciation claritj 0.41:10 0.673 13.411 0000

F=180.917,p<.001

Table4 Differences in comprehensibility by experience of Japanese English

with experience(n= 175)M SD

without experience(n=45)M SD

Speaker 1 Speaker 2 Speaker3 Speaker4 Speaker5 Speaker6

overall

3-.o4181

1

462304

0

33353

;.)

4

469422

1

322131

8

111111

(-

648970

2

561802

9

33343一.f

3

928720

1

932131

8

0

111

-1

0'

Table 5 Perceived competence levels and comprehensibility ratings M SD

n a t i v e-Ii k ea d v a n c e dh i g h-i n ter med i a to low-i n t e rmed i a to

2627

226

3640

3299

5433

7910

4788

0

0

0

0

English,while 45 reported they had never had st_1ch an experience_ Table 4 presents the averages comprehensibility ratings of these two groups. The results of t-tests conducted on the mean values for six speakers showed no significant difference between these two groups (t-0.615, df =218,P=0.539),which suggested that Hong Kong students'experience with Japanese English did not affect their comprehensibility ratings_

The last research question was how the Hong Kong students'self-evaluation of their own English relates to perceived comprehensibility ratings_ One of the profile questions of this study asked them to select their competence levels from native-like,advanced,high-intermedi_

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MATsUURA & CHIBA:Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learne「s'English

ate,low_intermediate,and beginning. Twe et the listeners considered that thei「 English Was native_like,26 thought they were at the advanced level,and 122 selected the high-into「mediate lovel and 67 low_intermediate level None of the listeners thought that they We「e at the beginning level Table5 indicates the average comprehensibility rating of siX SPeake「S in each proficiency level Apparently,the higher the listeners perceived their competence Was,the higher they tended to rate the comprehensibility of the Japanese speake「_ Although a non- parametric correlational study did not reveal a significant level of CO「「elation (「= -0・118,P= 0083) listeners with higher perceived competence were more likely to think that they undo「- stood Japanese English to a greater extent than listeners with lower pc「CeiVed Competence・

4. Discussion

while proficiency levels of speakers might be fairly good indicators of comp「ehenSibility as a whole comprehensibility is likely to vary from speaker to speaker_ In this Study,English read by students with higher proficiency tended to show higher comprehensibility_ HOWeVe「, even though their TOEIC scores were exactly the same for two speakers,ave「age Comp「ehenSi- b111ty ratings for these two were found to differ greatly. Therefore,a tutu「e Study might be needed to explore the relationship between speaker proficiency and perceived Comp「ehenSibility more extensively.

The second research question,which was probably the most important f「Om a Pedagogical viewpoint was to what extent accentedness, fluency, and pronunciation Cla「itv influenced comprehensibility judgment. While both fluency and pronunciation clarity aPPea「ed to affect perceived comprehensibility fairly well,the detailed analysis revealed that the latte「 Could best predict comprehensibility ratings. Compared to pronunciation clarity and fluency,accented- ness was less likely to influence perception of comprehensibility. These 「eSultS Seemed to support the findings of Derwing and her associates (Derwing & Mun「o, 1997;Mun「o & Derw1ng,1999;Derwing,Rossiter,Munro,& Thomson,2004),which showed an indication that fluency Is more likely to relate to perceived comprehensibility than accentedneSS in L2 Speech・Here It Is important to note that the investigators of this study and De「Wing,et a1.COnduCtedstudies from quite different angles. This study focused on nonnative English SPeake「S (HongKong students)perceptions of L2 comprehensibility,whereas Derwing,et a1.eXamined nativespeaker perceptions The methods employed were also different in many Ways. FO「 example,aiming to eliminate possible effects from different speech contents,this Study asked Japanesestudents to read the same reading passage as stimuli for listeners. Derwing,et at-,on theOthe「hand used several extemporaneous L2 speech samples,which natura]1y va「led in Contents aswell as In linguistic matters including grammar and vocabulary. Despite these ditto「enCeS,thefact that the common finding (i.e.,Foreign accents were less likely to cont「ibute to Comp「ehen-sibility judgment) was obtained is quite notable_

Another interesting finding is that high-comprehensibility English with highe「fluency andclarity (English of speakers 4 and 6) was perceived to have stronge「 accents than 1oW-comprehensjbjljty English with lower fuency and clarity (English of SPeake「S t,2,3,and 5)・These results might suggest that listeners are less likely to recognize fo「eign accents in low-comprehensibility English Listeners are more likely to pay attention to fluency and Cla「itvrather than accent when they try to catch what is being said. Foreign accent,on the Othe「

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hand,might become more salient only when speakers could show a certain leve1of fluency and clarity. These were only speculations that the investigators found from the results,and a future study should examine this hypothesis in depth_

The third research question was on the relationship between familiarity with Japanese English and comprehensibility. In this study,the Hong Kong students'past exposure to Japanese English was not identified as a good predictor of comprehensibility. The results of this study appear to contradict the findings of Matsuura et at.(1999),who argued that exposure te a particular English variety would help to enhance perceived comprehensibility of that variety. This contradiction might be mainly attributed to the difference in the amount of exposure to spoken English. The participants in the study of Matsuura,et at. (1999)were exposed to Irish English at least four hours a week,and this fairly extensive exposure possibly influenced their perceived comprehensibility levels, Hong Kong students' exposure to Japanese English,on the other hand,was assumed to be fairly limited. In the profile question_ naire,none of those students wrote Japanese English as their most familiar varieties_ Instead, a majority of students answered that they were most familiar with British English and English spoken by Cantonese speakers。 Therefore, if Hong Kong students had been exposed to Japanese English tea level similar to the listeners in Matsuura,et at's (1999)study,different results might have been yielded.

The last research question sought the effect of listener proficiency on comprehensibility judgment. The results of this study were quite understandable in that listeners with higher perceived competence tended to think that they understood Japanese English better than those with lower perceived competence,although the statistical analysis used in this study did not verify this point。 Examining proficiency effect on comprehensibility judgment might be indis_ pensable especially when listeners are nonnative speakers of English. It should be thus considered that this study succeeded in providing information on listener proficiency and their evaluation of Japanese English comprehensibility. Yet,a future study is needed to examine the effect of listener proficiency more extensively if scores of any proficiency tests,which appear to be more reliable as proficiency data than perceived competence,are available.

Con elusion

This study examined the relationships between comprehensibility of English and possible factors that could predict perceived comprehensibility in the ElL context,in which speakers and listeners were both nonnative speakers of English. The factors examined here were English proficiency of Japanese speakers as well as the degrees of foreign-accentedness, fluency, and pronunciation clarity. The effect of Hong Kong listeners' past exposure to Japanese English was examined as well_

It was found that Japanese students with higher English proficiency tended to be perceived as more comprehensible,and that fluency and pronunciation clarity also appeared to affect comprehensibility judgment while accentedness was less influential. A close examination conducted on accentedness fiuency,and pronunciation clarity revealed that clarity of pronunci_ ation was the best predictor of comprehensibility ratings. The results with relation to past experience of listening to Japanese English suggested that limited exposure to this variety was less likely to enhance comprehensibility levels.

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MATSUURA& CHIBA Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learners' English

One of the most important implications of this study for the EFL classroom is that Clea「 pronunciation appears to be a key for learners,particularly for intermediate learners like the speakers of this study,to make themselves understood particularly in a situation,in Which nonnative English speakers are involved_ EFL learners in Japan speak English mostly to native English_speaking teachers when they are in class,but outside the class「com thei「 interlocutors might not always be native English speakers_ They are highly likely to use English as a lingua franca with nonnative speakers as well. The results of this study suggested clearer intermediate English might give nonnative listeners a positive impression that those students with clear English are easier to understand than less clear English. Thus,EFL learners in Japan need to be encouraged to pronounce the language as clearly as Possible fo「 better global communication.

There are several suggestions for future studies in this field。 The researcher of a tutu「e study should replicate this study with listeners of different language backgrounds,spec通Catty focusing on which is most influential for comprehensibility judgment ;accentedness,fluency,o「 prontmcjatjon clarity_ These listeners should include both native and nonnative English- speaking people Comparing their results and those of this study might yield an imPO「tant implication in teaching ElL in Japan_ The investigators of this study hypothesized f「Om the results obtained in this study that foreign accents might be perceived more strongly When English is fluently and clearly spoken,in other words,when it is more comprehensible. Accent, on the other hand,might be less salient with less fluent and clear English. This iS the Second point to be examined in the future. Third,a future study should investigate the 「elatiOnShiP between listener proficiency and comprehensibility judgment more closely. In this Study,exact information on listener proficiency such as TOEFL and TOEIC scores was not available. With proficiency test scores,the researchers of a future study might better analyze the relationship between proficiency and comprehensibility judgment. Another important suggestion fo「 tutu「e studies is that they should try different data collection methods and compare the 「eSultS based on these methods This study employed a Likert scale type questionnaire to elicit liStene「 reactions,which appeared to be fairly subjective. Giving comprehension questions toliStene「S to let them recall what they have heard,for example,might be another possible alto「native to get reliable comprehensibility data. Examining listener comprehension with different data collection methods should enable the researchers of future studies to seek st加more comp「ehen- sive understanding on L2 comprehensibility.

Acknowledgments

This paper is based on the presentation that we gave at IAWE06 in Nagoya (0CtObe「7- 9,2006) we would like to express our sincere gratitude to Professor Kwok-kan Tam,the chinese University of Hong Kong and his colleagues for introducing us to their Cantonese- speaking students. We are particularly grateful to 221 Hong Kong participants and SiX Japanese readers who provided their time and resources to make this study Possible.

References

Bent T.& Brad1ow.A.R.(2003) The interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit

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Socieiy of America,114,166-1610.Chiba,R.,Tabei,K_,& 0℃onnor,W. (2002). Cultltral Dit,erslty_ Tokyo1Sanshusha.Derwing,TM.& Munro,M.J. (1997). Accent,intelligibility,and comprehensibility:Evidence from four

i ts. Studies m Secm d Language Ac1- sition,19,1-16.

Derwing,TM.& Munro M.J. (2005). Second language accent and pronunciation teaching:A research-based approach. TESOL Quarterly,39,379-397.

Derwing,TM.,Rossiter,M.,Munro,M.J.& Thomson R.I. (2004). Second language fluency:Judgments ondifferent tasks. Lavlguage Leam mg,54,655-679.

Derwing,T.M.,Thomson,R、f.& Munro,M.J. (2006). F,nglish pronunciation and fluency development inMandarin and Slavic speakers. System,34,183-193.

ETS TOEIC. (2005). TOa C TEST ◆DATA & ANALYStS.4

Kachru,B.B. (1989). Teaching world Englishes. Indian Journal of Af)plied Ling?istics,15,85-95.Kashiwagi,A_,Snyder,M.& Graig,J. (2006). Suprasegmental s vs.segmentals:NNS phonological errors

leading to actual miscommunication、 JACET Bu11ehn,43,43-72.Major,R.C.,Fltzmaurice,S.F.,Bunta,F.& Baiasubramanian,C. (2002). The effect of nonnative accents on

listening comprehension:Implications for ESL assessment. TESOL Qtiarterly,36,173-190.Matsuura,H.,Chiba,R_& Fujieda,M. (1999). Intelligibility and comprehensibility of American and Irish

Englishes in Japan. World Engiishes,]8,49-62.

Munro;M.J.& Derwing,T.M. (1999). Foreign accent,comprehensibility,and intelligibility in the speech ofsecond language learners. LanguageLearmng,49 (Supp.1),285-310.

Munro,M_J.,Derwing,T.M.,Morton,S.L. (2006). The mutual intelligibility of L2 speech. Studias i iSecond Language Ac11ulsition,28,111-131.

Smith L.E.& Nelson,C.E. (19851. International inte11igibilityof English:Directions and resources. WorfdEnglishes,3,333-342.

Tauroza,S.& Luk,J. (1997). Accent and second language listening comprehension. RELCJowna1,28,54-71.

Varonis,E.M.& Gass S、 (1982). The comprehensibility of non-native speech. Studies in Second LangtiageAcquisi-tton,4,114-136.

Appendix A

People give gifts on various occasions, of co1.1rse-birthdays, weddings, departures arrivals,special holidays,etc. In Japan it is common for people to buy small gifts for their coworkers when they take a trip. They return to their place of work with these little souvenirs,often sweets or trinkets like key chains.

What should one buy? Well,that can be a difficult question、 It's not always easy to choose a present. Some cultures have taboos. In Japan,for instance,you should never bring potted flowers or plants to someone who is in the hospital_

Appendix B

Let us know about yourself.1) Age: ( )2) Sex:male /female3) Major:( )4) When did you start learning English?

after entering college in sr.high school

一 12 -

in jr.high school

11

MATsUURA & CHIBA:Comprehensibility Judgment on Japanese Learners'English

in elementary school in preschool5) What do you think your English level is?

Native_like advanced high intermediate low intermediatebeginning

6) If you have taken a TOEFL/TOEIC test before,what was your score? If you have nottaken these tests,please do not write in any of the blanks_

TOEFL ( ) TOEIC( )7) Have you ever lived in a foreign country? If yes,when& where,andforhoW1ong? If

you have never lived abroad,please do not write in any the blanks.When I was ( )years old Where:( )Length:( )

8) what kind of English are you most familiar with? Choose the English va「iety you haveheard most often.

American English British English English spoken by Cantonese SPeake「SOther (specify: )

9) How often have you heard the variety of English mentioned above?almost everyday 3to 5times a week once or twice a week2to3times a month once a month

10) When did (do)you hear that variety? Choose one.after entering college in sr.high school in jr_high schoolin elementary school in preschool

11) choose the English variety you have heard most often,not including the variety youselected in 8).

American English British English English spoken by Cantonese SPeake「SOther (specify: )

12) How often have you heard the variety of English mentioned above?almost everyday 3to 5times a week once or twice a week2to3 times a month once a month

13) When did (do)you hear that variety? Choose one.after entering college in sr.high school in jr.high schoolin elementary school in preschool

14) Have you ever heard a Japanese person speak English?Yes /No (choose one)

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