Measurement of Accentedness, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility

This chapter provides an overview of three highly influential constructs in the pronunciation literature, accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility, to clarify how these terms are understood by their originators, describing how they have been used by others, and to highlight what they have revealed about pronunciation, and its contribution to successful oral communication. After delineating valid reasons for evaluating and teaching L2 pronunciation, the chapter provides a detailed account of Munro and Derwing&s;s accent, intelligibility, and comprehensibility distinctions and illustrates how others have defined and operationalized the same terms. It summarizes how Munro and Derwing originally defined and operationalized theoretical concepts. Munro and Derwing suggests that using extemporaneous speech samples for measuring intelligibility is preferable because it better reflects what listeners encounter in the real world. The chapter concludes with a critical evaluation of limitations, and provides suggestions for future directions.