From Rainbow to Rambo: Speaking to an AI and the Taiwanese English Pronunciation Intelligibility

The purpose of the study was to investigate the pronunciation intelligibility of Taiwan English (TE). An artificial-intelligence (AI)-enhanced automatic speech recognition (ASR) software program was used to perform a speech-to-text transcription, which enabled voice recognition algorithms to automatically produce orthographic transcription(s) of the Taiwanese university students’ speech samples. The findings based on the intelligibility scores and the comparison of the phonetic discrepancies of the transcribed words suggest that TE appears to be highly intelligible, however, it was clear that sub-varieties of TE exist, bordering from basilect (perceived to be less prestigious) to the cultivated/educated acrolect form, which is closer to the standard American English (SAE), thus making it even more challenging to identify a standardized TE. Nonetheless, the (in)accuracy of the ASR transcription gave the students the opportunity to reflect on their English pronunciation, to consider how comprehensible they sound, and to strive "to own" their English as part of their Taiwanese identity.