![]() ![]() There is a lack of consensus in research on the relative advantage of incorporating L1 phonology in L2. This gold standard is put to the test within bilingual communities, where it is often the case that people communicate with each other in their second language (L2) with an accent that reflects the phonology of their first language (L1). This happens not just in everyday life ( Roessel, Schoel, & Stahlberg, 2020), but also when prioritizing native instructors and accents when teaching and awarding certain language qualifications ( Bulgarian Ministry of Education, 2019 Levis, Sonsaat, Link, & Barriuso, 2016 Seedhouse, Harris, Naeb, & Üstünel, 2014 Selvi, 2014). Socially prestigious monolingual English that does not incorporate the phonetic influence of other languages is still considered the ‘gold standard’ against which learners’ varieties are explicitly or implicitly compared, despite long-standing criticisms of such views ( Cheng et al., 2021 Cook, 1999 Grosjean, 1989) and despite the fact that the majority of the population in the world is multilingual ( Cenoz, 2013). The results offer mixed support for ISIB for Talkers, and are consistent with second language learning theories according to which listeners rely less on their native language phonology when their proficiency in the second language has increased. However, the listeners with the lowest English proficiency had no advantage in reaction times and accuracy for either accent. In addition, they adapted their reaction times faster to new speakers with a native English accent compared to a Bulgarian accent. Listeners responded more slowly and less accurately to the matched-accent stimuli than the native English stimuli. ![]() The English stimuli were produced by native English speakers and Bulgarian-English bilinguals. The accuracy and reaction times of Bulgarian-English bilinguals living in the UK were recorded in a lexical decision task. According to second language learning theories, the listener’s second language proficiency determines the extent to which they rely on their first language phonetics, hence the magnitude of ISIB may be affected by listener proficiency. This study explores ISIB, considering listener proficiency. The Interlanguage Speech Intelligibility Benefit (ISIB) hypothesis for Talkers suggests that there is a potential benefit when listening to one’s second language when it is produced in the accent of one’s first language (matched-accent processing). ![]()
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