Speaker-independent Factors Affecting Foreign Accent Perception

Previous research on the perception of foreign accent has largely focused on speaker-dependent factors such as Age of Learning and Length of Residence which are specific to an individual speaker. Factors that are independent of particular speakers and their language learning history have also been shown to affect perception of second language speech. The present study examined two speaker-independent factors—lexical frequency and listening context—that affect the perception of foreign-accented speech. Using a seven-point scale, two groups of listeners rated speakers on how much of a foreign accent they displayed. Listeners in the Auditory-Only listening context heard only the target stimuli, while listeners in the Auditory + Orthography listening context were presented with both the auditory signal and an orthographic display of the target word. The results revealed that lexical frequency affects the perception of the degree of foreign accent; higher frequency words were consistently rated as sounding less accented than lower frequency words. The effect of the listening context emerged in two interactions; the Auditory + Orthography context reduced the effects of lexical frequency but increased the perceived differences between native and nonnative speakers. The results suggest that structural and methodological factors independent of the speakers’ actual speech articulations or developmental history affect the perception of degree of foreign accent and that such factors should be considered when interpreting the results of studies on the perception of foreign accented speech.