| Abstract |
| This study compares the reactions of
native English and native Spanish speakers who listened to tapes of Puerto Rican learners
of English of various levels of proficiency. The listeners completed a questionnaire
that examines the following variables: intelligibility, grammar, pronunciation,
intonation, wrong words, voice, hesitations, distraction and annoyance. It was found
that the English and Spanish listeners differed principally in how they rated the
linguistic forms of the speakers and in the annoyance reported. The Spanish listeners
rated the linguistic form much lower than did the English listeners and also reported more
annoyance. This indicates that the Spanish listeners were less tolerant toward
nonnative speech than were the English listeners. In addition, pronunciation and
hesitations were reported by both groups of listeners to be, overall, the features most
distracting from the message. |
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