Abstract
Although pronunciation research had been marginalized in the field of applied linguistics (Derwing & Munro, 2005), recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in second language (L2) pronunciation research. An excellent example of such a trend can be found in the volume edited by Talia Isaacs and Pavel Trofimovich, Second Language Pronunciation Assessment: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. This volume is a recent addition to the Second Language Acquisition Series, which aims to promote interdisciplinary research in the field of L2 acquisition. Focusing on the assessment of L2 pronunciation, this volume effectively brings together pronunciation research in different disciplines: language testing, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, speech and hearing science, and L2 acquisition and pedagogy. The studies presented in the 14 chapters of this volume demonstrate the interdisciplinary nature of L2 pronunciation research and the complexity of pronunciation assessment.
The chapters in this volume are organized into five parts. Part 1: Introduction provides an overview of L2 pronunciation assessment research (Chapter 1) and reports on a focus-group study on the perceived usability of the CEFR phonological control scale (Chapter 2). Part 2 (Chapters 3–5) relates L2 pronunciation research to the domains of L2 speaking, writing, and listening assessments, while Part 3 (Chapters 6–9) focuses on relevant perspectives from psycholinguistics and speech sciences. Part 4 (Chapters 10–13) takes sociolinguistic and lingua franca approaches to discuss the concept and role of the native speaker norm in pronunciation assessment. Part 5 (Chapter 14) concludes the volume by putting the previous chapters into perspective and providing suggestions for future research.
Although the organization of the chapters in this volume follows a clear and logical sequence, readers can also follow three emergent themes from the chapters as they read: (1) problematization of the native speaker norm; (2) factors influencing intelligibility and comprehensibility judgments; and (3) pronunciation assessment and assessment of other linguistic domains.
Chapters 10–13 problematize the role of the native speaker norm in L2 pronunciation assessment from sociolinguistic and lingua franca perspectives. Chapter 10 provides a posthumous commentary by Alan Davies on the native speaker status. While acknowledging the difficulty of defining and emulating the native speaker, Davies considers the idealized native speaker model necessary for assessment. In contrast, Lindemann (Chapter 11) argues against the reliance on the native speaker model in L2 pronunciation assessment. Drawing on sociolinguistics literature, Lindemann contends that even native speaker pronunciation varies in both segmental and suprasegmental features. Such variations are rarely noticed or stigmatized, whereas similar variations in non-native speech are often perceived as errors.
Rather than debating the appropriateness of the native speaker norm, Kennedy, Blanchet, and Guénette (Chapter 12) and Sewell (Chapter 13) examine the use of lingua franca norms in pronunciation assessment. Kennedy et al. explore how French teachers in Quebec, Canada, assess L2 French pronunciation and whether the notion of French as a lingua franca (FLF) influences their judgment of pronunciation-related constructs. They find that the teachers relied on the native speaker norm in rating comprehensibility while appealing to the FLF norm in rating communicative effectiveness. In an English as a lingua franca (ELF) context, Sewell examines pronunciation assessment in two local English tests in Hong Kong, namely the Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers of English (LPATE) and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE), and argues that local pronunciations that may deviate from native speaker norms but do not significantly affect intelligibility should not be penalized in these tests.
While all the chapters use or promote intelligibility and comprehensibility as the criteria for pronunciation assessment, several chapters investigate a range of factors that may influence judgments of intelligibility and comprehensibility. On the one hand, Chapters 6 and 9 adopt a psycholinguistic approach to examining construct-relevant features associated with speech intelligibility, comprehensibility, and overall language proficiency. Mora and Darcy (Chapter 6) demonstrate that individual differences in cognitive control and linguistic background (monolingual vs. bilingual) can interact to affect pronunciation accuracy, measured in terms of comprehensibility and accentedness: individual differences in cognitive control were associated with the differences in pronunciation accuracy for the monolingual group but not for the bilingual groups. In Chapter 9, Galaczi, Post, Li, Barker, and Schmidt explore distinctive rhythmic and durational features that characterize L2 English speech across proficiency levels from different L1 backgrounds (Spanish, German, and Korean). The construct-relevant speech and learner characteristics examined in these chapters can provide useful implications for L2 pronunciation teaching, learning, and assessment.
On the other hand, Chapters 3, 7, and 8 investigate construct-irrelevant factors influencing judgments of intelligibility and comprehensibility. Browne and Fulcher (Chapter 3) argue that ratings of L2 fluency and intelligibility can be influenced by the listener’s familiarity with the topic of utterance and by the L1 background of the speaker. Ballard and Winke (Chapter 7) investigate students’ attitudes toward English teachers’ accents and the relationships among the teachers’ accentedness, intelligibility, comprehensibility, and acceptability as an English teacher. They find that comprehensibility and intelligibility ratings for NNS teachers were more strongly associated with their acceptability scores than their accentedness ratings. Saito, Trofimovich, Isaacs, and Webb (Chapter 8) examine the impact of rating experience on the judgment of comprehensibility of L2 speech samples in relation to different phonological and lexical correlates. While both expert and novice rater groups focused on similar phonological and lexical features such as word stress, intonation, and lexical complexity, only the experienced raters attended to morphological accuracy. The construct-irrelevant factors examined in these chapters should be considered in the rating process for L2 pronunciation assessment.
Instead of directly investigating L2 pronunciation assessment, two chapters discuss what other linguistic domains pronunciation research can learn from as well as how it can affect them. Knoch (Chapter 4) reviews findings in four well-researched areas in L2 writing assessment: (1) rating scale development, (2) rater reliability and performance, (3) task effects, and (4) classroom assessment practice. Knoch argues that findings in these areas of writing assessment research can enlighten research in comparable areas in L2 pronunciation assessment. Wagner and Toth (Chapter 5) investigate how pronunciation or speech features, as altered between scripted and unscripted spoken texts, can influence the perceptions of L2 learners toward a listening test. When L1-English/L2-Spanish speakers were given either a scripted or unscripted text in a Spanish listening test, they were aware of the different characteristics of the spoken texts.
Overall, this edited volume has a number of commendable qualities. First, it positions L2 pronunciation assessment in a larger context, which allows the authors to bring in perspectives from assessment research and practice for other related skills and constructs (e.g., listening and writing). This position rightfully stresses that pronunciation is often not a stand-alone construct in language teaching, learning, and assessment but remains embedded in the assessment of speaking ability and general language proficiency.
Another distinctive feature of this edited volume is a list of recommended areas for future research suggested by Trofimovich and Isaacs in Chapter 14. These areas of inquiry include pronunciation assessment and technology, automated scoring, and standardization of pronunciation criterion in speaking assessment. However, one area can be added to this list: the proficiency of the listener/rater in L2 pronunciation assessment. Although research generally agrees that listener background can influence the perceptions of intelligibility and comprehensibility, the proficiency of listeners has not been given much attention in research of L2 pronunciation assessment. Most of these studies in speaking assessment utilize or assume the pairing of non-native speakers and native/near-native (highly proficient) listeners/raters. However, it is also possible that the listener has a lower proficiency than the speaker in assessment contexts. This pairing can be reasonably expected to have an impact on the assessment of L2 pronunciation. In fact, findings in Chapter 8 have already suggested the potential impact of listener proficiency.
That said, this edited volume effectively connects multiple expertise and perspectives in research of L2 pronunciation assessment. In so doing, it offers a more comprehensive picture of what L2 pronunciation and pronunciation assessment embody. The interdisciplinary perspectives brought by different chapters make this volume a valuable resource for a wide range of audiences: pronunciation researchers, language testers, and language teachers. For pronunciation researchers – especially novice researchers with an interest in assessment – this volume covers a comprehensive range of research areas in L2 pronunciation assessment, with recommendations for future research. For language testers, the volume raises awareness of both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives of pronunciation assessment (e.g., the native speaker norm in pronunciation assessment), which helps to extend the conceptualization and operationalization of pronunciation as a test construct. For language teachers, this volume provides possible explanations for learner difficulty with particular pronunciation features. This volume also helps to establish reasonable goals for pronunciation learning, with particular respect to intelligibility and comprehensibility.