Examining linguistic and experimenter biases through “non-native” versus “native” speech

There is a consensus in psycholinguistic research that listening to unfamiliar speech constitutes a challenging listening situation. In this commentary, we explore the problems with the construct of non-native and ask whether using this construct in research is useful, specifically to shift the comm...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Applied psycholinguistics 2023-07, Vol.44 (4), p.460-474
Main Authors:	Weissler, Rachel Elizabeth, Drake, Shiloh, Kampf, Ksenia, Diantoro, Carissa, Foster, Kurtis, Kirkpatrick, Audrey, Preligera, Isabel, Wesson, Orion, Wood, Anna, Baese-Berk, Melissa M.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Accentuation Auditory Perception Beliefs Bias Cognitive ability Communication Communication (Thought Transfer) Communicative Competence (Languages) Familiarity Grammar Language Language Dominance Linguistic Competence Linguistics Listening Listening Comprehension Native Language Native speakers Nonnative speakers Original Article Psycholinguistics Psychological Studies Research Design Research programs Researchers Social factors Speech Speech perception Speech production Terminology Towards a Just and Equitable Applied Psycholinguistics Undergraduate Students
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	There is a consensus in psycholinguistic research that listening to unfamiliar speech constitutes a challenging listening situation. In this commentary, we explore the problems with the construct of non-native and ask whether using this construct in research is useful, specifically to shift the communicative burden from the language learner to the perceiver, who often occupies a position of power. We examine what factors affect perception of non-native talkers. We frame this question by addressing the observation that not all “difficult” listening conditions provide equal challenges. Given this, we ask how cognitive and social factors impact perception of unfamiliar accents and ask what our psycholinguistic measurements are capturing. We close by making recommendations for future work. We propose that the issue is less with the terminology of native versus non-native, but rather how our unexamined biases affect the methodological assumptions that we make. We propose that we can use the existing dichotomy to create research programs that focus on teaching perceivers to better understand talkers more generally. Finally, we call on perceivers and researchers alike to question the idea of speech being “native,” “non-native,” “unfamiliar,” and “accented” to better align with reality as opposed to our inherently biased views.
ISSN:	0142-7164 1469-1817