A study into the international intelligibility of Hong Kong English Intelligible, Intelligent, Likeable? Andy Kirkpatrick ([e-mail])

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A study into the international intelligibility of
Hong Kong EnglishIntelligible, Intelligent,
Likeable?Andy Kirkpatrick (akirkpat_at_ied.edu.hk)
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Why Important?

• Fear that NVEs are mutually / internationally
  unintelligible is one reason they are not
  promoted as classroom models
• Belief that NS varieties are mutually /
  internationally intelligible is one reason they
  are promoted as classroom models

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• Hong Kong advertises itself as Asias World City
  (this actually seems to mean that you can do
  business in English here)
• Competition from Singapore (Sydney?) (Shanghai?)
• A skilled and multilingual workforce

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• Two contradictory principles (Levis 2005)
• The nativeness principle (it is possible and
  desirable to achieve native-like pronunciation in
  an FL)
• The intelligibility principle (speakers simply
  need to be understandable)

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• But listen to these conversations
• Two Australians
• A White South African and An Australian
• A Bruneian and a Filipina
• Two People from Hong Kong

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• Method
• 28 final year English majors recorded in
• short conversations (Can you tell
• me what you did in your last vacation?)
• 6 selected (3 F and 3M) based on L1
• Cantonese and immersion being their only
• extended overseas experience

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• Listening comprehension-type worksheets
• developed
• Tapes played to two groups of students in
• Singapore (N19 and 18) and two in Australia
  (N11 and 24). One group
• in each place heard the tapes only once, the
  second group heard them twice.

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• Listeners tasks
• Complete the worksheets
• Judge intelligence of speakers and say why
• Judge likeability of speakers and say why

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• Measuring relative intelligibility (words) /
  comprehensibility (utterances) / interpretability
  (illocutionary force)
• Smith et al 60
• Kirkpatrick and Saunders 80
• Kirkpatrick, Deterding and Wong 80

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Results

• Are these speakers intelligible?
• Average overall score of people who listened to
  the tapes only once was 81
• Average for F speakers 86
• Average for M speakers 74

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• 5 /19 Singaporeans who heard the tape only once
  scored 100 and 13/19 scored more than 80. 1/19
  scored 76.
• Singaporeans in Australia also scored very
  highly (100 / 89) as did the Filipina (95) and
  2 Indonesians (92 / 84). The Hong Kong student
  in Oz scored 97.

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• A number of NNS students in Australia found the
  speakers less intelligible than did the NS
  students (cf. also Kirkpatrick and Saunders). For
  example, all Australian NS scored more than 80
  after only one hearing, but two South Koreans, an
  Indonesian and a Brazilian did less well. This
  may be more a comment on their own English
  language proficiency, however, than on the
  intelligibility of the HK speakers.

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• Are these HK speakers more intelligible than
  their Singaporean counterparts?
• Only 50 of Australian listeners found
  Singaporeans 80 intelligible
• (ii)17/28 HK listeners scored between 60-80
• (iii)11/28 HK listeners scored less than 60

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Who was the most / least intelligible and why?

• Most intelligible F1
• Least intelligible M1
• first person / poor worksheet design (densely
  packed info) / unfamiliar name

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• Very few problems at sound/word level.
• The TH of Kathy was written as an /f/ sound
  by three listeners, helping confirm the TH to
  /f/ in HK speakers English.
• See Deterding, Wong and Kirkpatrick for a
  description of the pronunciation of Hong Kong
  English based on this data.

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Who was the most intelligent and why?

• Most intelligent M2
• Yes, winner of debate must have some
  intelligence
• Yes. He is able to understand the interviewer
  and answer intelligently
• Yes. Fluent, spontaneous response.

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• Language / Accent and Intelligence
• Yes. Pronunciation is crisp though accent is
  strong
• He sounds intelligent. Speaks in the way I
  associate with intelligent people
• Average. Her accent is less standard compared to
  the rest
• Yes. For a Hong Kong citizen, he speaks fairly
  well English. Understandable

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• Least intelligent F1 (Note, also most
  intelligible)
• No. Puts people down
• No. She thinks she is smart
• No. She thought she was good in English
• No She gives answers to the question that are
  not really related
• likeability / intelligence fusion?

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Who is the most/least likeable and why?

• Most likeable M3
• Least likeable F1 who was also judged the
  least intelligent and most intelligible.
• But M2 was judged the most intelligent was also
  ranked the second least likeable.

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• M3Yes. He shared more than just answered
  questions seemed interested in the interview
• Yes. He has interests in many fields
• Yes. I want to go to Japan too and he sounds
  humble
• Yes. He seems to be a responsible perosn and
  willing to work hard.
• BUT
• No. He sounds like a workaholic

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• F1Not really. She seem proud and imputed that
  some did not speak as well as her
• No. egoistic and loud mouth
• No. She seems like a proud person. Empty vessels
  make most noise
• No. Shes a tat too proud of her language
  proficiency.
• No. She sounds a little conceited

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• Possible number of listener responses is 576 and
  the listeners gave 466. So the great majority
  gave reasons for their judgments about
  intelligence and likeability and most of these
  (but not all) were based on facts gleaned from
  what they had heard.
• Apart from anything else, this suggests that the
  speakers were, in Smiths terms, highly
  interpretable.

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Conclusions and Implications

• Generally speaking
• These speakers are highly intelligible
• These speakers are considered intelligent
• and likeable.
• Listeners rely on facts to make judgments
• about speakers intelligence and likeability

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• These six multilingual speakers L1 Cantonese
• will provide internationally intelligible
  classroom
• models of English for their learners and
• they represent suitable linguistic classroom
• models.
• Whether this model will be socially
• accepted by HK stakeholders as suitable for
• the HK classrooms is, of course,
• another matter entirely.