Accentedness in English is connected to inter-word (co)articulation and speech rate, a pilot study

Previous studies have shown that consonantal errors and difficulties in coarticulation may decrease English language learners’ (ELL) speech intelligibility. The current pilot study investigates connections between inter-word (co)articulation, perceived accentedness, and speech rate. Participants were six adults (2 men) and one native speaker, with L1 of Mandarin (n = 4), Thai (n = 1), and Finnish (n = 1). Methods: The dataset contained 21 repeating (4x) short sentences and two reading passages with all English phonemes. Inter-word consonantal errors, speech rate (compared to the model), and accentedness (2 judges) were compared statistically (Spearman) and qualitatively. Results revealed that accentedness correlated strongly with the number of errors (r = 0.95, p > 0.001) and speech fluency (r = 0.92, p > 0.01). Qualitatively, the error types that increased with accentedness, were word-final consonant omission, voicing, consonant substitutions, and assimilations. In addition, all the ELL speakers showed variability in consonant coarticulation in repeating sentences, unlike the native speaker. The variability increased with accentedness up to 1/3rd of the sentences pronounced with varying inter-word errors. Discussion: The results of this pilot study align with earlier findings on the importance of consonants and coarticulation in ELL speech production. In addition, speech rate and variability in pronunciation may be connected to perceived accentedness.