In fluency research that contains rating experiments, it is often the case that either a) overall proficiency is examined, and participants are free to rate fluency intuitively; or b) participants...Show moreIn fluency research that contains rating experiments, it is often the case that either a) overall proficiency is examined, and participants are free to rate fluency intuitively; or b) participants are told to base their judgments on several utterance fluency characteristics, since the researcher studiesfluency in the narrow sense. In this study, I examine whether there are more speech factors that fall under the concept of fluency in the narrow sense than only the fluency characteristics that the participants are given prior to a rating task. Qualitative research into the perception of fluency on Dutch native and nonnative speech gave 17 different categories that participants take into account when judging spontaneous speech. Then, two groups of participants were juxtaposed: one group that had to judge fluency based on four utterance fluency characteristics (explicit group); and one group that only received a definition of cognitive fluency and was free to base their judgments on their own interpretation of this definition (implicit group). Results indicate that the implicit group was less likely to let disfluencies influence them negatively, but was more inclined to unconsciously judge overall proficiency rather than fluency in the narrow sense. Additionally, both groups showed a sensitivity for pause distribution that helped them to determine the speaker’s ease of lexical retrieval. I conclude that intonation and planning efficiency are essential components of fluency in the narrow sense, and should therefore be used in the instructions for future rating experiments.Show less
Previous research on speech fluency and persuasiveness has generally focused on the effect that measures of speech fluency have on measures of perceived persuasiveness in native speech. In this...Show morePrevious research on speech fluency and persuasiveness has generally focused on the effect that measures of speech fluency have on measures of perceived persuasiveness in native speech. In this study an experiment was carried out to examine how the fluency measure of speech rate affects native and non-native speech in four different persuasive scenarios. Recordings of a native and non-native speaker were manipulated phonetically, resulting in fast and slow recordings for each scenario. Persuasiveness was measured on three dimensions, with one measure of belief change, and two measures of perceived persuasiveness: message perception and speaker perception. The results indicated that the persuasiveness of native and non-native speech is affected differently by speech fluency manipulations. A significant interaction was found for two of the three variables (belief change and speaker perception), indicating that the native speaker was more persuasive with a higher speech rate, whereas the persuasiveness of the non-native speaker was unaffected. For the message perception variable, there was no significant interaction effect, but there was a significant effect for fluency and nativeness, indicating the native speaker was more persuasive, and the fast speaker was more persuasiveShow less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
Previous studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech....Show morePrevious studies have found that non-standard language varieties are at risk of discrimination in legal contexts. Additionally, slow speech has been shown to be less credible than normal speech. However, little is known about how accent and speech rate interact. In order to investigate this phenomenon further, this thesis examines how Dutch listeners judge utterances on a seven-point scale when presented with auditory stimuli in two accents of Dutch (Standard Dutch and Moroccan Dutch) and two speech rates (normal and slow). Contrary to previous studies indicating that non-standard language is perceived as less credible, the results of this study revealed that listeners generally perceive both accents as equally credible at a normal speed. Slower speech was judged as less credible in both varieties, but Standard Dutch was given lower ratings overall. The results suggest that what has previously been established for slow speech in languages such as English also holds true for Dutch, and may have adverse consequences for individuals in contact with the law.Show less
