Age of immersion as a predictor of foreign accent

2002 ◽  
Vol 112 (5) ◽  
pp. 2388-2388
Author(s):  
Miles Munro ◽  
Virginia Mann
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Age Of Immersion

Age of immersion as a predictor of foreign accent

2005 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
MILES MUNRO ◽  
VIRGINIA MANN
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Critical Period ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
Continuous Scale ◽  
Reliable Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Linear Manner ◽  
Age Of Immersion

This study examines the relationship between age of immersion (AOI) and the degree of perceived accent (DPA) that raters who speak native English perceive in the speech of Mandarin speakers who learned English as a second language. AOI and speech samples of variable length and linguistic context (single words, sentences, short paragraph, and self-generated picture narration) were collected from the target group (n=32, AOI=3–16) and from native speaker controls. A moderately trained native speaker panel of college students then rated the samples on how “native” they sounded using a continuous scale. Rating was broken over three separate sessions to relieve fatigue, and a reliability measure was administered at the onset and termination of each session to ensure consistency. Reliable performance was demonstrated both across judges and across sessions and indicated no single AOI demarcated a “critical period.” Instead, DPA was found to deviate from native in a highly linear manner with AOI, as did speakers' tendencies to noticeably deflect from this line. These deviations began at an AOI of about 5, although some speakers bottomed out with an AOI as early as 7, whereas nearly native ratings were given to others whose AOI was greater than 5. Females were rated as more native and variably accented than males. Ratings of native decreased with sampling length but increased with extemporization, the effect of AOI on DPA being similar for all sampling types.

Foreign accent, gender, and location as determinants of employment decisions

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megumi Hosoda ◽  
Jennifer N. Walter ◽  
Lucia Arsintescu ◽  
Tuan Q. Tran
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Employment Decisions

The Influence of Foreign Accent on Morphological Processing in English

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie B. Feldman ◽  
Dana Basnight Brown ◽  
Yuki Kanai
Keyword(s):  
Morphological Processing ◽  
Foreign Accent

scholarly journals In the Ear of the Listener: The Role of Foreign Accent in Interethnic Friendships and Partnerships

2021 ◽  
pp. 019791832098883
Author(s):  
Irena Kogan ◽  
Jörg Dollmann ◽  
Markus Weißmann
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Children Of Immigrants ◽  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Foreign Accent ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Accented Speech ◽  
Interethnic Friendships ◽  
Communicative Power

This article examines the association between accented speech and the formation of friendships and partnerships among immigrants and native-born majority residents in Germany. Drawing on the sixth wave of the German extension of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey in Four European Countries, we analyze a neglected aspect of language — pronunciation — and find that speaking with a foreign accent is a more important correlate of the incidence of interethnic partnerships than of interethnic friendships. We argue that beyond its primary function of understandability, accented speech possesses socially communicative power. Accent transmits signals of an individual’s foreignness and cultural differences and, thus, becomes an additional marker of social distance. Such signals serve as a greater obstacle to more consequential intimate interethnic relations such as partnerships. Our findings extend the scholarly debate on the role of symbolic boundaries in social interactions between ethnic groups by yet another important boundary maker — accent.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document