Intelligibility and comprehensibility of Japanese speakers of English from a global Englishes perspective

This study investigated how different listener factors are associated with the intelligibility and comprehensibility of Japanese speakers of English. Specifically, the association between the two dimensions of speech understanding (intelligibility and comprehensibility) and three listener factors (listeners’ first language, familiarity with English spoken by Japanese people, and listeners’ English level) was examined. A total of 67 listeners from three different L1 groups (Japanese, Mandarin, and English) participated in this study. They listened to thirty-two English sentences spoken by two different Japanese groups (high proficiency and low proficiency) and rated the intelligibility and comprehensibility of those speech acts with a transcription task and a Likert scale, respectively. Their familiarity with Japanese accented English and English proficiency was measured with a questionnaire. Statistical analyses revealed that when the speaker and listener shared the same L1, both intelligibility and comprehensibility were high, indicating there was a shared L1 effect. The effect was greater in the case where speakers’ English level was low. Similarly, listeners’ familiarity with English spoken by Japanese people was significantly correlated with both intelligibility and comprehensibility. These correlations tended to be stronger when the speaking participants' English level was low. By contrast, there were no significant correlations between listeners’ English proficiency and intelligibility, nor between listeners' English proficiency and comprehensibility. An implication of these findings is that sharing a L1 and familiarity with a speakers’ L1 accented English could enhance intelligibility and comprehensibility. Additionally, these results can be interpreted as showing that a high level of English does not necessarily lead to a better understanding of English speech by non-native English speakers.