accent adaptation in perception

As a world language, English emcompasses a great variety of accents spoken by both native and non-native speakers. Listeners are exposed not only to standard English accents in their daily life, but also to diverse accented forms, some of which may be unfamiliar to them. While extensive research has examined how native English speakers process different accents, second language (L2) learners’ adaptation to non-native English accents remains less explored. This project investigates how L2 English learners (in this case, Mandarin learners of English) adapt to non-native English accents, compared to native English speakers. L2 learners may benefit from shared phonetic features between their first language and the target accent, as well as their perceptual flexibility towards phonetic variants, potentially leading to acoustic-phonetic advantages. Conversely, native English speakers might rely more on higher-level semantic and lexical cues to resolve ambiguities caused by phonological neutralization. However, the specific adaptation strategies employed by L2 listeners remain unclear.

This project addresses three research questions:

• (1). Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB): Will Mandarin listeners exhibit talker- and listener-driven interlanguage speech intelligibility benefits (ISIBs) for words carrying a familiar non-native accent (i.e., Mandarin-accented English) that involves phonological mergers? How are such ISIB effects influenced by factors like degree of merger, L2 proficiency and L1 phonemic statuses?
• (2). Adaptation to Unfamiliar Accents: How do Mandarin listeners perceive English words in an unfamiliar accent? Moreover, with availability of contextual resources, how well can Mandarin listeners adapt to a familiar versus unfamiliar accent, compared to native English listeners?
• (3). Phonetic Retuning Strategies: What strategy do Mandarin listeners adopt when retuning the phonetic boundaries of a non-native sound under lexical guidance?