Factors that affect native English speakers’ comfort levels when communicating with non‐native English speakers

AbstractBuilding on the theoretical insights into the socio-cognitive approach to the study of interactions in which English is used as a lingua franca (ELF)), this paper reports on the idiosyncratic phenomenon that ELF speakers do not adhere to the norms of native speakers, but instead create their own particular word associations during the course of the interaction. Taking the verbs of speech talk, say, speak, and tell as examples, this study compares word associations from three corpora of native and non-native speakers. The findings of this study reveal that similar word associative patterns are produced and shared by ELF speech communities from different sociocultural backgrounds, and these differ substantially from those used by native English speakers. Idiom-like constructions such as say like, how to say, and speakin are developed and utilized by Asian and European ELF speakers. Based on these findings, this paper concludes that ELF speakers use the prefabricated expressions in the target language system only as references, and try to develop their own word associative patterns in ELF interactions. Moreover, the analysis of the non-literalness/metaphorical word associations of the verbs of speech in the Asian ELF corpus suggests that ELF speakers dynamically co-construct their shared common ground to derive non-literal/metaphorical meaning in actual situational context.

Download Full-text

Speech Rate Is No Simple matter

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263100009189 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 303-313 ◽

Cited By ~ 21

Author(s):

Tracey M. Derwing

Keyword(s):

Native Speakers ◽

Speech Rate ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Pause Time ◽

Short Film ◽

English Speakers ◽

Articulation Rate ◽

Simple Matter ◽

Communicative Success

Speech rate (articulation rate and pauses) was examined for its relation to communicative success. Native English speakers (NSs) were paired with other NSs and with non-native speakers (NNSs). The subjects viewed a short film, the content of which they were to relay to their two partners independently. Communicative success was measured through comprehension questions addressed to the listeners at the completion of the task. Analyses indicated that although a slight majority of NSs slowed their speech rate for NNSs, they did not adjust articulation rate, but did significantly increase pause time. Neither speech rate nor articulation rate varied over the course of the narrations. Contrary to intuition, the subjects who successfully communicated the story to NNSs did not adjust their speech rate, while those who had difficulty communicating with NNSs increased pause time significantly. The implications of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for further research are made.

Download Full-text

White Native English Speakers Needed: The Rhetorical Construction of Privilege in Online Teacher Recruitment Spaces

TESOL Quarterly ◽

10.1002/tesq.195 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 733-756 ◽

Cited By ~ 55

Author(s):

Todd Ruecker ◽

Lindsey Ives

Keyword(s):

Teacher Recruitment ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

English Speakers ◽

Rhetorical Construction ◽

Online Teacher

Download Full-text

PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING OF STRESS BY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS LEARNING SPANISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Studies in Second Language Acquisition ◽

10.1017/s0272263121000309 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-23

Author(s):

Ramsés Ortín ◽

Miquel Simonet

Keyword(s):

Second Language ◽

Phonological Processing ◽

First Language ◽

Native English Speakers ◽

Recall Task ◽

English Speakers ◽

Auditory Stimuli ◽

L2 Learners ◽

L1 English ◽

Processing Stress

Abstract One feature of Spanish that presents some difficulties to second language (L2) learners whose first language (L1) is English concerns lexical stress. This study explores one aspect of the obstacle these learners face, weak phonological processing routines concerning stress inherited from their native language. Participants were L1 English L2 learners of Spanish. The experiment was a sequence-recall task with auditory stimuli minimally contrasting in stress (target) or segmental composition (baseline). The results suggest that learners are more likely to accurately recall sequences with stimuli contrasting in segmental composition than stress, suggesting reduced phonological processing of stress relative to a processing baseline. Furthermore, an increase in proficiency—assessed by means of grammatical and lexical tests—was found to be modestly associated with an increase in the accuracy of processing stress. We conclude that the processing routines of native English speakers lead to an acquisitional obstacle when learning Spanish as a L2.

Download Full-text