Intelligibility studies: a consideration of empirical and ideological issues

ABSTRACT: This paper critically examines key issues underpinning past research on the intelligibility of L2 speech. While acknowledging the substantial contribution made by intelligibility studies to our understanding of L2 speech and how it is received and perceived, a close reading of the research in this area gives rise to grave misgivings. In particular, there has been a tendency to treat intelligibility with no serious consideration of the context of interaction and the real participants involved. Furthermore, this field of investigation appears to be largely grounded in unequal native/non‐native hierarchies, manifested in misconceptions and myths about native and non‐native speakers and their speech. With an emphasis on issues of pronunciation, and a focus on the varieties and speakers of the Outer Circle, this paper questions and challenges some of the dominant trends in this field, and concludes by suggesting new ways of defining and investigating intelligibility.