This study examined listeners’ evaluations of first (L1) and second language (L2) English speech in work-related contexts. Ninety-six English-speaking listeners from Calgary rated audio recordings of 12 English speakers (6 L1 English, 6 L1 Tagalog) along three continua capturing one professional (competence), one experiential (treatment preference), and one linguistic (comprehensibility) dimension. The audio recordings additionally differed in terms of job prestige (high vs. low) and performance level (high vs. low). Compared to English speakers, Tagalog speakers were rated as less competent and comprehensible overall, and listeners wished to be treated more like the clients in scenarios recorded by English than Tagalog speakers, with all effects magnified for speakers with heavier foreign accents. Nonetheless, listeners generally evaluated English and Tagalog speakers similarly in low-prestige and in low-performance scenarios, but rated low performance less negatively in low-prestige positions. Findings demonstrate highly nuanced accent bias in work-related contexts.

No abstract

No abstract

The present study investigated the correlation between second-language (L2) proficiency and phonological development within a longitudinal frame. Five Brazilian learners of English participated in two data collection sessions with a seven-month interval. Participants completed a paragraph reading task containing several instances of two nasals and a rhotic coda in word-final position, namely, /m n ɹ/. Proficiency was measured via experienced English teachers’ ratings of an image description task. Results revealed cross-linguistic influences on coda production with vowel nasalization and deletion of the nasal codas, as well as frication and deletion of the rhotic coda. /ɹ/ was the segment that displayed considerable improvement over time. Statistical analyses unveiled a strong, significant relationship between proficiency and accuracy scores, but this relationship was not significant in the final data collection. The development of the phonological categories at issue seems to have occurred independently of participants’ oral proficiency.