Abstract

The speech intelligibility is the precondition for successful communication, and plays a very significant role in our daily communication no matter in inter-linguistic communication or intra-linguistic communication. In verbal communication, intelligibility is a measure of how comprehensible the speech is in given conditions. Intelligibility is affected by the quality of the speech signal, the type and level of background noise, reverberation, the properties of the communication system, and so on. The first chapter briefly introduces the importance of understanding the language and some factors that contribute to language comprehension which have already been studied. Meanwhile it defines the direction, scope, content, and mission of the research. The second chapter summarizes the factors that influence language comprehension that are relevant to this study. The factors of the research will be divided into two categories: non-linguistic factors and linguistic factors. Non-linguistic factors include visual stimulus, reverberation time and so on. Linguistic factors include accent, language proficiency, teacher talk and China English. There is a brief summary of this chapter at the end. The third chapter is about research methods: experimental design, material preparation, participants selection, experimental procedures, data collection and data analysis. The last chapter summarizes the experimental results, implications for English teaching, the limitations of the experiment and the prospect of further research.

Keyword: speech intelligibility; teacher talk; China English; thinking pattern

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1 Introduction-1

1.1 Background-1

1.2 Purpose of the research-2

1.3 Structure of the thesis-2

2 Literature review-3

2.1 Non-Linguistic Factors-3

2.1.1 Visual Stimulus-3

2.1.2 Others-3

2.2 Linguistic Factors-4

2.2.1 Accent-4

2.2.2 Language Proficiency-4

2.2.3 Teacher Talk-5

2.2.4 China English-5

2.3 Conclusion-6

3 Research Methods-8

3.1 Experiment-8

3.1.1 Material-9

3.1.2 Participants-9

3.1.3 Procedure-9

3.1.4 Data-9

3.1.5 Result-9

3.1.6. Data Analysis-11

3.2 Observation-13

4 Conclusion-15

4.1 Major Findings-15

4.2 Implications for English Teaching-15

4.3 Limitations-16

4.4 Further Research-17

References-18