Prosodic cues and degree of perceived foreign accents in learner English

Foreign accent is judged by the degree to which the non-native (L2) production is perceived differently from production patterns by native speakers (NL) [1]. Both segmental and suprasegmental features are shown influential in accent perception by NL speakers or L2 learners [2]-[4]. However, roles of prosodic cues in the process are not well known yet. Our study aims to investigate effects of intonation and speaking rate in foreign accent perception. We modified properties of the two cues in English utterances produced by NL and L2 speakers. Mandarin and Cantonese learners of English judged on the degree of foreign accents. Results show that intonation had a stronger influence on accent rating in L2 than in native speech, while speaking rates affected judgement of L2 accents more. No differences were found between Cantonese and Mandarin L2 English samples, but Cantonese listeners seemed more sensitive to native English samples than Mandarin listeners did.