Measuring the ability to perceive foreign-accented English by Japanese listeners working in maritime sectors

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24652094
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: English linguistics
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: UCHIDA Yoko 東京海洋大学, 海洋科学技術研究科, 教授 (50313383)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 海事英語 / 国際語としての英語 / 英語の多様性 / 音声知覚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Clear and precise communication is crucial in Maritime English. A questionnaire survey revealed that native speakers' fast speech inconsiderate of the nonnative listeners is likely to result in miscommunication. A series of experiments were carried out in an attempt to verify the effectiveness of "slow and clear" speech, which is strongly recommended in the use of Standard Marine Communication Phrases.
Two sets of sentences (40 in total) were produced by 5 native speakers in two styles: "clear speech" and "ordinary speech." By adding white noise to the original recordings, 4 sets of stimuli were created, i.e., "clear speech x noise," "clear speech x no noise,"ordinary speech x noise," and "ordinary speech x no noise."
The files were presented to 40 Japanese learners of English. By having them answer simple true or false questions, intelligibility was measured. It was found that the use of "clear speech" had a positive effect on intelligibility, especially in the noise condition.

Free Research Field

英語音声学