This qualitative case study examined the impact of listening to Global Englishes on the development of listening comprehension in pre-intermediate English students at Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica. Using questionnaires, focus groups, and observations, the research explored students' perceptions of various English speakers from different…

This paper examined whether a younger starting age of formal instruction on a foreign language is beneficial in expanding circle countries. An experimental study was designed to examine to what extent the five varieties of English language teachers are intelligible to Japanese- (JSLs) and Korean-speaking language learners (KSLs), who have…

The aims of this study were 1) to examine the effectiveness of the World Englishes instructional model in enabling students to improve their listening comprehension towards varieties of English, and 2) to investigate students' attitudes towards the use of the World Englishes instructional model. The methodology of this study followed a…

The practice of second language (L2) speech perception has traditionally relied on equal-interval perceptual scales and novice listeners' (NLs) impressionistic judgments of constructs such as accentedness and comprehensibility (Munro & Derwing, 2011). However, issues have surfaced with respect to how well NLs can use these scales, whether they…

This research aimed to develop the World Englishes instructional model to enhance students' listening comprehension of varieties of English. The student's needs analysis was conducted in the first step of the study to gather data concerning the needs, problems, and opinions on teaching and learning English listening. Thirty students participated…

The present study investigated Korean-accented English (KoE) intelligibility and conducted experiments in Korea, Japan, and the USA to test the benefits of listener's familiarity and identify the key phonological features of KoE. In the experiments, the participants were asked to transcribe the target (KoE) of 100 English statements each…

Second/foreign language (L2) classrooms do not always provide opportunities for input and output practice [Lightbown, P. M. (2000). Classroom SLA research and second language teaching. Applied Linguistics, 21(4), 431-462]. The use of smart speakers such as Amazon Echo and its associated voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant (IPA) Alexa…

By means of a large-scale web-based investigation, we established the degree of mutual intelligibility of 16 closely related spoken languages within the Germanic, Slavic and Romance language families in Europe. We first present the results of a selection of 1833 listeners representing the mutual intelligibility between young, educated Europeans…

A discussion of the need to promote mutual comprehension among speakers of Romance languages describes one university program in France and looks at the possibility of extending multilanguage instruction to secondary education. The potential, and problems, of trying to teach students listening comprehension in several related languages are…