The foreign-accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility of L2 Arabic speech

Abstract

This study investigated foreign-accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility in second language (L2) Arabic speech. More specifically, it was designed to 1) measure how foreign-accented, comprehensible, and intelligible L2 Arabic speech was, 2) explain the relationships among those three global aspects, and 3) determine the extent to which foreign-accentedness and comprehensibility – individually or combined – explain or predict intelligibility. Thirty adult L2 Arabic speakers were audio-recorded while having an unofficial oral proficiency interview (OPI). A subset of three speech samples were extracted from the entire OPI for each speaker. Next, 10 adult native speakers of Arabic listened to and transcribed all speech samples in Arabic as a measure of intelligibility; in addition, they rated the samples for foreign-accentedness and comprehensibility on a 9-point scale. Results showed that L2 Arabic speech was rated more positively for comprehensibility than for foreign-accentedness, on average; in addition, most of it was less than highly intelligible. Also, results showed statistically significant relationships among the three global aspects under investigation, although they varied in strength: foreign-accentedness and comprehensibility showed the strongest relationship, followed with comprehensibility and intelligibility; foreign-accentedness and intelligibility was found to have the weakest relationship. Furthermore, foreign-accentedness and comprehensibility demonstrated a statistically significant explanatory or predictive power in intelligibility. However, both the unique contribution and added power of foreign-accentedness were not statistically significant, deeming a model with only comprehensibility being the best fit for the obtained assessment data of L2 Arabic speech. Consistent with existing evidence, the results support the partial independence of foreign-accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility as global aspects of L2 speech while also indicating L2-specific patterns. After discussing the results and implications, directions for future research are provided.