Lexical Profiles of Comprehensible Second Language Speech

Abstract

This study examined contributions of lexical factors to native-speaking raters' assessments of comprehensibility (ease of understanding) of second language (L2) speech. Extemporaneous oral narratives elicited from 40 French speakers of L2 English were transcribed and evaluated for comprehensibility by 10 raters. Subsequently, the samples were analyzed for 12 lexical variables targeting diverse domains of lexical usage (appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, and sense relations). Results revealed that L2 comprehensibility was chiefly of L2 speech especially from the perspective of comprehensibility. Therefore, the goal of this study was to extend previous research on L2 comprehensibility by targeting a range of lexical measures in L2 speech, including lexical appropriateness, fluency, variation, sophistication, abstractness, and sense relations. The overall intent was to identify which lexical aspects of L2 speech are associated with different levels of oral ability, defined in terms of comprehensibility of L2 speech for native-speaking raters.

Video‐Based Interaction, Negotiation for Comprehensibility, and Second Language Speech Learning: A Longitudinal Study

“…All speech samples, each of which included one speakers' three timed picture descriptions, were orthographically transcribed and cleaned by removing obvious mispronunciations based on contextual information available in the pictures (e.g., ought side was transcribed as outside) and orthographic markings of pausing (e.g., uh, um, oh, ehh). As was the case in previous L2 vocabulary and grammar literature (e.g., Saito, Webb et al, 2015;Crossley, Salsbury, & Mc-Namara, 2015), the transcripts were submitted to the following lexicogrammar analyses conducted by a linguistically trained coder: (a) lexical appropriateness (ratio of nonnative word choices to total number of words); (b) lexical variation (number of different words per minute); and (c) morphosyntactic accuracy in verbs (ratio of tense, aspect, modality, and subject-verb agreement errors to total number of words), nouns (ratio of plural usage errors related to countable and uncountable nouns to total number of words), and articles (error ratio of article usage in terms of definite, indefinite, and null to total number of words).…”

“…The global construct of L2 speech was assessed based on novice raters' intuitive judgment of how easily the L2 speech samples could be understood (i.e., comprehensibility), as well as how nativelike they were in comparison to NSs (i.e., accentedness; Derwing & Munro, 1997). Given that these two global domains were conceptualized as a reflection of how NSs react to speech in reallife communication with NNSs, novice participants were recruited for rating purposes (Trofimovich & Isaacs, 2012;Saito, Webb, Trofimovich, & Isaacs, 2015).…”

Effects of Sound, Vocabulary, and Grammar Learning Aptitude on Adult Second Language Speech Attainment in Foreign Language Classrooms

“…In this project, the participants' spontaneous speech was elicited via one of the most commonly used speaking tasks: picture narrative. This task was selected for the purpose of cross-study comparisons, as it has been used extensively in previous L2 speech studies as a way to elicit sufficiently long spontaneous speech samples for pronunciation (Trofimovich & Isaacs, 2012), fluency (Derwing et al, 2004), and lexicogrammar (e.g., Saito, Webb, Trofimovich, & Isaacs, 2016) analyses.…”

Exploring the relationship between productive vocabulary knowledge and second language oral ability

“…Employing longer speech samples (> 3 min), therefore, future studies of this kind need to examine whether and to what degree the productive vocabulary test scores could predict the way L2 learners actually use vocabulary while speaking at a spontaneous mode (Uchihara, Saito, & Clenton, 2016). Drawing on the computational modelling of L2 vocabulary proficiency developed by Crossley, Salsbury, and McNamara (2014) and Lu (2012), Saito, Webb, Trofimovich and Isaacs (2015) recently examined lexical correlates of native speakers' comprehensibility judgement based on 40 Francophone learners of English in Canada. Their full-length picture descriptions (> 3 min) were analysed via a set of comprehensive measures, tapping into various domains of L2 lexical usage.…”