Topic affects perception of degree of foreign accent in a non-dominant language

Ksenia Gnevsheva*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    3 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Multiple studies demonstrate that social and linguistic information is connected in speech perception such that the priming of a social category will affect listeners' linguistic behavior. At the same time, the degree to which social information is relied upon during speech perception is less well understood. The current study investigates whether priming of a country affects the perceived degree of foreign accent and whether this effect varies across different social groups. Two groups of bilinguals (one dominant in Russian, another dominant in English) listened to audio recordings of monolingual and bilingual (also either dominant in Russian or English) speakers and rated the degree of their foreign accentedness in English and Russian. The recordings were divided by topic: neutral, Russia-related, and Australia-related. Statistical analysis revealed a significant effect of topic: Russia-related clips were rated as more foreign-accented in English by bilinguals dominant in Russian, and Australia-related clips were rated as less foreign-accented in Russian when produced by bilinguals dominant in English. The variation is explained through listeners' using social information more when the linguistic information is less reliable.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)101-121
    Number of pages21
    JournalLinguistics
    Volume59
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2021

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Topic affects perception of degree of foreign accent in a non-dominant language'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this