Nordic Research on Accent, Acceptability and Acquisition (NordAc³)
Workshop at Kiel University, 21 March 2019
Organizers: Lisa Tulaja, Steffen Höder
NordAc³ is organized as the concluding workshop of the project Danish as a Neighbour Language: Pronunciation Competence in Danish in German Schools (Kiel University, 2015–2018).
Recent years have seen an increasing interest in studies on L2 pronunciation. This includes studies that focus on the relationship between L2 pronunciation and sociolinguistic aspects such as the social and communicative acceptability of L2 speakers (van den Doel 2006; Pilott 2016; Thomson 2018). Also, the importance of teaching L2 pronunciation and teachers’ skills in this context are increasingly emphasized (Derwing et al. 2014; Thomson & Derwing 2015).
While the majority of studies address widely used languages, most notably English, NordAc³ approaches this topic with a regional focus on research from the Nordic countries or on the Nordic languages. The two-day workshop brings together scholars working on sociolinguistic, phonetic, and acquisitional aspects of L2 pronunciation, with particular emphasis on the discussion of
- current empirical findings:
- Which perspectives on L2 pronunciation, including the use of listener ratings, are being discussed in current studies?
- Which fundamental implications for teaching purposes can be drawn from recent L2 pronunciation studies?
- methodological aspects:
- How can different dimensions of pronunciation (especially acceptability) be defined and measured?
- How can the mutual influence of different dimensions be measured, e.g. the influence of accent on acceptability?
- the relevance of research on L2 pronunciation for teaching:
- What do teachers need to know? What should we teach teachers?
- Which aspects of L2 pronunciation in general and which language-specific phenomena in particular should be part of teacher education?
We welcome 20-minute contributions (20 minutes for presentations plus 10 minutes for discussion) in English, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Please send your abstracts (max. 400 words excluding references) by 30 November 2018 to Lisa Tulaja (l.tulaja@isfas.uni-kiel.de).
References
Derwing, Tracey M. et al. 2014. L2 accent and ethics: issues that merit attention. In Ahmar Mahboob & Leslie Barratt (eds.), Englishes in multilingual contexts. Language variation and education, 63–80.
Pilott, Marty. 2016. Migrant Pronunciation: What do employers find acceptable? Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington.
Thomson, Ron I. 2018. Measurement of accentedness, intelligibility and comprehensibility. In Okim Kang & April Ginther (eds.), Assessment in second language pronunciation, 11–29. York: Routledge.
Thomson, Ron I. & Tracey M. Derwing. 2015. The effectiveness of L2 pronunciation instruction. A narrative review. Applied Linguistics 36, 326–344.
van den Doel, Rias. 2006. How friendly are the natives? An evaluation of native-speaker judgements of foreign-accented British and American English. Utrecht: LOT.