Beyond Linguistic Features

Abstract

Comprehensibility, or ease of understanding, has emerged as an important construct in second language (L2) speech research. Many studies have examined the linguistic features that underlie this construct, but there has been limited work on behavioral and affective predictors. The goal of this study was therefore to examine the extent to which anxiety and collaborativeness predict interlocutors’ perception of one another’s comprehensibility. Twenty dyads of L2 English speakers completed three interactive tasks. Throughout their 17-minute interaction, they were periodically asked to evaluate their own and each other’s anxiety and collaborativeness and to rate their partner’s comprehensibility using 100-point scales. Mixed-effects models showed that partner anxiety and collaborativeness predicted comprehensibility, but the relative importance of each predictor depended on the nature of the task. Self-collaborativeness was also related to comprehensibility. These findings suggest that comprehensibility is sensitive to a range of linguistic, behavioral, and affective influences.

Comprehensible to Whom? Examining Rater, Speaker, and Interlocutor Perspectives on Comprehensibility in an Interactive Context

“…The present analysis, which appears to be the first to examine self‐rated comprehensibility in interaction, extends prior work (Nagle et al., 2022; Trofimovich et al., 2020) by showing that L2 speakers self‐rate their comprehensibility similarly to how it is rated by their interaction partners. Regardless of the task or the timing of self and partner assessments, the two interlocutors’ ratings were on average within 2–3 points of each other (on a 100‐point scale), implying that the interactants had a fairly accurate view of how effortful it was for their interlocutors to understand their speech.…”

“…To explain their assessments, the speakers cited various pronunciation, content, and discourse issues as reasons for difficulties in understanding their partners. In a follow-up analysis of the same dataset, Nagle et al (2022) further showed that comprehensibility in an interactive context has behavioral and affective components; speakers who perceived themselves and their partners to be more collaborative and less anxious also rated their partners to be more comprehensible.…”

“…The L2 speaker data came from the same corpus of 20 L2–L2 interactions between university‐level students analyzed previously (Nagle et al., 2022; Trofimovich et al., 2020). The 40 speakers, who were on average 26 years old ( SD = 2.89), included 14 women and 26 men, all recently admitted to various degree programs at an English‐medium university in Canada (see the Appendix for background information on the speakers’ home languages, genders, and ages).…”

“…In a follow‐up analysis of the same dataset, Nagle et al. (2022) further showed that comprehensibility in an interactive context has behavioral and affective components; speakers who perceived themselves and their partners to be more collaborative and less anxious also rated their partners to be more comprehensible.…”

“…For instance, during conversation, speakers may become more familiar with each other's speech patterns, so they will require less effort to understand each other as they continue speaking (Trofimovich et al., 2020). The social coordination that arises as speakers work together to accomplish a common task could manifest itself through enhanced collaboration and decreased anxiety, which may further bolster their mutual comprehensibility (Nagle et al., 2022). Similarly, considering that L2 speakers’ self‐assessments often diverge from the ratings provided by external listeners (Isbell & Lee, 2022), speakers may be better at self‐assessing their comprehensibility in interactions where they have access to verbal and visual cues that signal fluctuations in their own and their partner's comprehensibility.…”