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Chapter 12 - Variability in Speaking Rate of Native and Nonnative Speech

from Part III - Acquiring Suprasegmental Features

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 January 2021

By
Melissa M. Baese-Berk  and
Ann R. Bradlow
Edited by
Ratree Wayland
Ratree Wayland
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Summary

The bulk of the work on non-native speech has focused on average differences between L1 and L2 speakers. However, there is growing evidence that variability also plays an important role in distinguishing L1 from L2 speech. While some studies have demonstrated greater variability for non-native than native speech (e.g., Baese-Berk & Morrill, 2015; Wade et al., 2007), others have demonstrated that under some circumstances non-native speech maybe less variable and that variability in non-native speech may shift as a function of many factors, including task (Baese-Berk & Morrill, to appear; Baese-Berk, Morrill, & Bradlow, 2016) and L1-L2 pairing (Vaughn, Baese-Berk, & Idemaru, to appear). In the present study, we ask how variability manifests in L1 and L2 speech by speakers from a variety of language backgrounds. Specifically, we ask whether a speaker whose L1 speaking rate is highly variable is also highly variable in their L2. We also ask whether variability in speaking rate in L1 or L2 differs as a function of task (e.g., read vs. spontaneous speech) and complexity of the task (e.g., more or less complicated reading passages). The results of this study will inform our understanding of the myriad complex factors that influence non-native speech.

Keywords

VariabilitySpeakingRateSecondLanguageNativeNon-NativeSpeechLearning
Type
Chapter
Information
Second Language Speech Learning
Theoretical and Empirical Progress
 , pp. 312 - 334
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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