Wahrnehmung und Selbstbeurteilung des fremden Akzents durch Sprachlernende: Forschungsstand und Ergebnisse einer Befragung an der Universität Venedig

Learners who are able to perceive and to evaluate the accentedness of L2 discourse, their own or that of other learners, might be expected to achieve a better overall pronunciation. But what do we know about perception and evaluation of a foreign accent by L2-learners and speakers? The paper gives an overview of relevant empirical studies. Several experiments demonstrate that learners are able to distinguish and to evaluate native and non-native speech in a very similar manner to native speakers (NS). Sometimes beginners or even non-learners are able to do so, but diverge from NS, because they rely primarily on universal features of accented speech like hesitations, repetitions or a low speech rate. When it comes to self-evaluation, non-native learners’ perception of foreign accent seems to be less reliable compared to that of NS, but even to that of other L2-speakers. Learners seem to suffer from a sort of accent-deafness when they assess their own pronunciation, while they can reliably evaluate the pronunciation of other learners. These findings from prior experimental research are confirmed by a survey of 199 university entrants majoring in foreign languages at Venice University Ca’ Foscari.