This study explored the effects of task and listeners’ linguistic background on judgments of accentedness and comprehensibility in second language (L2) French. Forty Spanish speakers of L2 French recorded a picture narrative and answered an interview question. These audio samples were assessed by native French listeners with (n = 10) and without (n = 10) knowledge of L2 Spanish using 1,000‐point sliding scales to evaluate accentedness and comprehensibility, as well as nine linguistic variables targeting pronunciation, fluency, lexis, grammar, and discourse. In the picture narrative task (cognitively less complex), accentedness could be distinguished from comprehensibility at the level of the linguistic dimensions associated with each construct. While accentedness was related to pronunciation and fluency (consonant and vowel errors, intonation, speech rate), comprehensibility was additionally linked to lexis (accuracy, richness), grammar (accuracy, complexity), and discourse richness. However, in the interview task (cognitively more complex), both accentedness and comprehensibility had similar linguistic profiles, associated with all nine linguistic variables. Listeners’ experience with L2 Spanish had little impact on listener ratings of accentedness or comprehensibility in both tasks. Findings are discussed in relation to L2 instruction and the role of task complexity in targeting various dimensions of L2 accentedness and comprehensibility.

Researchers working on metasyntactic abilities (i.e., the metalinguistic ability associated with syntax) face the problem of defining and measuring them. Metasyntactic abilities is a multifaceted concept, which encompasses various types of behaviours, from being able to intentionally manipulate syntactic structures to being able to state syntactic rules, and the way in which it is defined and measured varies greatly from one study to another. The present paper proposes a theoretically informed classification of syntax related tasks. The first part presents previous research defining and distinguishing various types of syntactic and metasyntactic abilities and their interrelations. In the second part, commonly used tasks are described and analyzed in terms of the framework presented, with the aim of better pinpointing the type of ability measured by each task. Ultimately, with this analysis of commonly used tasks, we hope to offer criteria for discriminating between the various measures of metasyntactic abilities.

This study took a dynamic approach to second language (L2) comprehensibility, examining how listeners construct comprehensibility profiles for L2 Spanish speakers during the listening task and what features enhance or diminish comprehensibility. Listeners were 24 native Spanish speakers who evaluated 2–5 minute audio clips recorded by three university-level L2 Spanish speakers responding to two prompts. Listeners rated comprehensibility dynamically, using Idiodynamic Software to upgrade or downgrade comprehensibility over the course of the listening task. Dynamic ratings for one audio clip were video-captured for stimulated recall, and listeners were interviewed to understand which aspects of L2 speech were associated with enhanced versus diminished comprehensibility. Results indicated that clips that were downgraded more often received lower global ratings but upgrading was not associated with higher ratings. Certain problematic features and individual episodes caused listeners’ impressions to converge, though substantial individual variation among listeners was evident.

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Les autoreformulations autoamorcées (ARAA) à savoir, les modifications des formes langagières amorcées et réalisées par le locuteur lors de la production orale sont depuis longtemps considérées comme une fenêtre sur les mécanismes psychologiques et linguistiques sous-jacents à l’apprentissage d’une langue seconde. Les études antérieures ont révélé que la production d’ARAA varie notamment en fonction du niveau de compétence langagière des apprenants, de la complexité de la tâche de production orale ou encore des différences individuelles. Dans le cadre de la présente étude, la mémoire phonologique et la capacité de commutation de l’attention ont été examinées en relation avec la production d’ARAA chez 30 francophones adultes apprenants de l’anglais L2. La capacité de commutation de l’attention a été opérationnalisée au moyen du TMT et la mémoire phonologique, au moyen d’une tâche de reconnaissance de non-mots. Les ARAA, recueillies lors d’une narration à partir d’images, ont été codées par deux juges. Les résultats des analyses factorielles en composantes principales montrent que tandis qu’une meilleure capacité de commutation de l’attention est en lien avec une plus grande production d’ARAA centrées sur les choix de mots, une meilleure mémoire phonologique est en lien avec une production moindre d’ARAA centrées sur la forme.