Assignment #4
1. Citation in APA style
KANG, O., RUBIN, D., & PICKERING, L.. (2010). Suprasegmental Measures of Accentedness and Judgments of Language Learner Proficiency in Oral English. The Modern Language Journal, 94(4), 554–566.
2. What was the researcher 's purpose in conducting this study?
The aim of this study was to examine oral proficiency and comprehensibility in nonnative speakers of English using suprasegmental features of accentedness.
3. What were the hypotheses/research questions?
a. Would computerized analysis of the suprasegmental factors show similar results to the one that relied on subjective rating?
b. What is the role of the suprasegmental factors as a unit on proficiency and comprehensibility? …show more content…
Listener group: consisted of 188 undergraduate students in a university located in the United States.
5. Describe the materials that the researcher(s) used to collect the data.
The samples were collected from a section of an iBT TOEFL task, in which subjects were asked to record a 60 seconds responses to passages they read. The response should include a summery and a demonstration of the passages.
6. Describe the procedures the researcher(s) used to collect the data. The TOEFL task was conducted online and gathered as audio files. These audio files consisted of random speech samples. The native speaker listeners listen to them and looked at them in terms of both proficiency and comprehensibility. Proficiency was measured on a Likert scale from (1-7), and comprehensibility was comprised of five 7-point bipolar scale. 7. Describe the statistical tests that the researcher(s) used to analyze the data he/she/they collected. Identify which test was used for which question/hypothesis. Ignore procedures that are not related to the question/hypothesis
Statistical test that were used:
a. Standardized coefficient Beta
b. …show more content…
Although they said that using this technique is harder, time consuming and laborious, they stressed on its importance since it excludes a lot of the mistakes and errors that previous studies were convicted of having. Concerning the results of the study itself, the researcher’s findings supported previous evidence that suprasegmental factors contribute to the degree of proficiency and comprehensibility of nonnative English speakers. Furthermore, they said that practicing these suprasegmental factors (speech rate, pause, stress, and intonation) would help in improving the oral proficiency of nonnative