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The Impact of L2 English Learners' Belief about an Interlocutor's English Proficiency on L2 Phonetic Accommodation

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Abstract

The current study investigates the influence of L2 English learners’ belief about their interlocutor’s English proficiency on phonetic accommodation and explores whether interaction-induced phonetic convergence could improve L2 English learners’ vowel pronunciation. Results from two experiments show that when the subjects believed that their interlocutor was a native English speaker, they generally converged to her vowel pronunciation. When the subjects believed that their interlocutor was a non-native English speaker, they generally diverged from her vowel pronunciation. In addition, phonetic convergence enabled the subjects to improve their L2 English vowel pronunciation, leading to greater similarity to the native interlocutor. The findings are discussed in terms of the Communication Accommodation Theory, the Interactive Alignment Theory, and the Speech Learning Model.

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Notes

  1. W = word, N = native speaker, S = subjects.

  2. F1 and F2 usually vary even for the same words spoken by the same speakers at different times of a day.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by China Scholarship Council and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Oklahoma State University. Special thanks go to Dr. Nancy Caplow, Dr. Bryce McCleary, Leana Mason, Mary Smith, Dr. Yongbing Liu and all the participants for their assistance with the study. We also feel grateful to the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.

Funding

Funding was provided by China Scholarship Council (Grant Number 201708220063).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Foreign Languages, Ningbo University of Technology, No. 201 Fenghua Road, Jiangbei District, Ningbo City, Zhejiang, China

    Fan Jiang

  2. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA

    Shelia Kennison

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  1. Fan Jiang
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  2. Shelia Kennison
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Correspondence to Fan Jiang.

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Jiang, F., Kennison, S. The Impact of L2 English Learners' Belief about an Interlocutor's English Proficiency on L2 Phonetic Accommodation. J Psycholinguist Res 51, 217–234 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-021-09835-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-021-09835-7

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