The effects of non-native listeners' L1 background and L2 proficiency on the perception of foreign accent for pitch-manipulated native and Chinese accented English speech

This study reports a perception experiment of foreign accent where both native and non-native Chinese and Korean listeners participated in judging the foreign accent of native and Chinese accented English speech, but unlike many previous studies, pitch was manipulated to increase and decrease at the peak in statements and at the valley in yes-no questions to find out if non-native listeners' sensitivity to pitch conforms to native listeners. Moreover, the current study attempts to find the effects of non-native listeners' L1 background and L2 proficiency in the extent to which the agreement occurs between native and non-native listeners' ratings. Results showed that the prosodic system pertaining to pitch in their L1 influenced L2 listeners' responses to the synthesized changes of pitch in L2 speech. Non-native Chinese and Korean listeners' perception of foreign accent was also different between statement and yes-no question stimuli as pitch serves as a distinctive function in two syntactic structures of their L1. This all provides the evidence for the effect of non-native listeners' L1 background. Non-native listeners' L2 proficiency also turned out to contribute to the foreign accent judgment only for Chinese high talkers' yes-no question stimuli, which serves as the evidence for the effect of L2 proficiency. However, it held true only when the listeners did not share their L1 with the talkers.