While the automated assessment of oral reading fluency (ORF) using accuracy and speech rate has proliferated, expressiveness of speech, as measured by prosodic features, has been neglected due to its inherent complexity and lack of technological resources. Despite the potential benefits of burgeoning technology for assessing hard-to-measure…

This controlled experimental study investigated the interaction of variables associated with rating the pronunciation component of high-stakes English-language-speaking tests such as IELTS and TOEFL iBT. One hundred experienced raters who were all either familiar or unfamiliar with Brazilian-accented English or Papua New Guinean Tok Pisin-accented…