Nativeness perceptions and speaker voice as predictors of (non-)native English speaker evaluations in four ELF contexts

Abstract

We investigated the extent to which responses (N = 6617) by four L2 English listener groups (The Netherlands: n = 1701; Germany: n = 1606; Spain: n = 1647; Singapore: n = 1663) were affected by giving L1 English speaker status to standard L1 British and American English accents, compared with a typical Dutch English accent. We assessed the extent to which presumed nativeness impacted speaker evaluations (status, affect, dynamism), and the extent to which a speaker’s voice influenced speaker evaluations by analyzing listener responses to verbal and matched guises. The results showed that presumptions of a speaker’s nativeness significantly impacted speaker evaluations on all dimensions, and we therefore conclude that speaker evaluations are also based on listeners’ views on a speaker's nativeness. In addition, speaker evaluations were influenced by a speaker’s voice to such an extent that this can lead to significantly more positive/negative speaker evaluations of both L1 and L2 English speakers. Finally, this study confirms the relevance and main benefit of the matched-guise technique in accentedness research, compared with the verbal-guise technique, since the former successfully minimizes the actual impact of voice.