241 / 2018-04-15 15:05:38

Assessing intelligibility of adult ESL learners’ interactive speech

Assessment, Intelligibility, English as Second Language, Interactive speech, Adult ESL learners, Proficiency

全体主题 > Standards in developing language assessments

Effective interpersonal communication skills are often considered as the key to success in professional as well as personal and social life. There are two modalities of interpersonal communication: verbal and non-verbal, however, verbal modality is commonly opted for by the most language users. Speaking effectively in the target language to fulfill the criteria of effective interpersonal communication is an unwritten law to be called a proficient language user. Among many parameters for being an effective communicator such as fluent, accurate, being intelligible is equally important in interactive speech conditions. Therefore, the commonly accepted notion of being fluent and accurate language user is equivalent to be a good communicator has to be challenged. More often adult ESL learners face the communication failure issues while performing interactive tasks as they fail to convey the message across. There are two possible reasons for this. Firstly, the speaker does not produce the speech at the understanding level of the listeners. And secondly the listeners’ insufficient knowledge of the target language. A large body of research has been done on the unintelligible speech of children and people with hearing disabilities. However, this issue has not been addressed enough in the area of second language acquisition and in the case of adult ESL learners. In this study, a conversation analysis of adult interactive speech was performed. The episodes of unintelligible speech sample were analyzed closely and an ‘intelligibility measuring scale’ was developed. Several factors that cause loss of intelligibility (LOI) in adult ESL learners’ interactive speech were identified. The study offered a comprehensive scale for assessing intelligibility of interactive speech of adult ESL learners.