Speech is extremely variable along many different dimensions. One source of variability listeners often encounter is accented speech, in which phonological units can systematically differ from the listener's native categories. This dissertation presents five experiments testing how listeners adapt to accent-based phonological variability,…

The objectives of this study were to explore foreign tourists' responses to Thai English, a variety of English emerging in Thailand, in terms of comprehensibility, and to identify the linguistic features that made Thai English incomprehensible. One hundred international tourists in Bangkok from four regions including East Asia, Southeast Asia,…

With the advent of communication facilities, most of our students are enthusiastic to get highly acquainted with rhythmical languages; one of these languages is English. Students prefer to speak the language more than to write a composition, or get in touch with its grammar. In other words, a question is raised "how can we learn English…

While most research in applied linguistics has focused on second language (L2) speakers and their language capabilities, the success of interaction between such speakers and first language (L1) speakers also relies on the positive attitudes and communication skills of the L1 speakers. However, some research has suggested that many L1 speakers lack…

The present longitudinal study describes and categorizes the primary changes in L2 Spanish intonation over time by 11 learners studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina for one academic semester. Via the autosegmental metrical model of analysis, this dissertation classifies intonational contours for absolute interrogatives and declarative…

This article discusses the novel "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw (1957) which depicts Eliza, a flower girl from East London, who became the subject of an "experiment" by a Professor of Phonetics who vowed to change the way she spoke. The story is an excellent example of a very real and contextual portrait of how language,…

The current study lays the groundwork for a model of Mandarin tones based on both native speakers' and non-native speakers' perception and production. It demonstrates that there is variability in non-native speakers' tone productions and that there are differences in the perceptual boundaries in native speakers and non-native speakers. There…

Based on litigation patterns, discrimination because of accent occurs most frequently in colleges and universities, particularly in the classroom. Accent discrimination cases are unlike other employment discrimination cases because successful claims generally do not depend on qualifications, but on accent's effect on job performance. Specific…