A Study Of Intelligibility Of Nine English Varieties For University Students In China

With the unprecedented development of economic globalization,English has spread across cultural boundaries and established its status as an international language or lingua franca.The spread of English worldwide inevitably gives voice to its frequent contact with local languages and cultures.Naturally,there appears a great number of localized English varieties worldwide.And the emergence of various English varieties or World Englishes makes the international academia worry that English will inevitably become a mutually unintelligible language.Given the importance of intelligibility in English communication,a great number of scholars abroad and at home have carried out extensive research on the intelligibility of different English varieties.Many researchers abroad have made great efforts to investigate the intelligibility of different English varieties and explore potential factors affecting intelligibility.They have achieved fruitful findings on intelligibility issue.However,the domestic studies on intelligibility are still in the early stage.Chinese scholars have paid less attention to the intelligibility of World Englishes.The present study aimed to investigate how intelligible different English varieties were for English users in China and what factors might affect their intelligibility judgments.81 freshmen English majors from a key university in China participated in the research and were asked to listen to nine different English varieties,namely,American English,British English,Australian English,Indian English,Philippine English,Singaporean English,French English,Japanese English and South Korean English.While listening,they completed an intelligibility test,a questionnaire and 12 of them had a one-to-one interview at the end of the experiment.After a careful analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected from the above techniques,the present study reached the following findings:Firstly,the Inner Circle Englishes were generally more intelligible and comprehensible than the Outer Circle Englishes and the Expanding Circle Englishes.Besides,Philippine English was the most intelligible accent,followed by the three Inner Circle Englishes,namely,British English,American English and Australian English.It indicated that for Chinese university students,native phonology did not always tend to be more intelligible than nonnative phonology.Secondly,for all the three Inner Circle Englishes,Chinese university students' perceived comprehensibility significantly correlated with vocal features of speech samples such as clarity,speed,intonation and fluency.Thirdly,intelligibility,comprehensibility and perceived comprehensibility were all independent dimensions.Higher intelligibility or word/utterance recognition might not led to better comprehensibility or world/utterance meaning.Higher perceived comprehensibility ratings did not necessarily correspond with better understanding of the speech.Fourthly,sex,type of graduation school and length of English learning didn't show great influence on participants' intelligibility judgments.What really mattered when participants made their intelligibility judgments were their familiarity with specific English variety,vocal features of the speech samples like pronunciation,intonation,speed and fluency,and also difficulty level of the exercise.The study contributed to the ongoing domestic literature on intelligibility and its findings to a certain degree provided some pedagogical implications for domestic English instruction.The vigorous development of World Englishes appeals to us to adapt to pluralism and make corresponding adjustments to EFL teaching in China.The overemphasis on native English phonology should give way to achieving effective communication or international intelligibility in EFL classrooms in China.Moreover,English teachers could familiarize students with more English accents to foster their awareness of "World Englishes" and enhance their communicative competence in authentic interactions.