Successful comprehension

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utterance, which might explain, for instance, why the target word „curry‟ in the utterance „curry dishes‟ might have been frequently misunderstood by the learners. In addition to the slight reduction of the vowel /ʌ/ in the word „curry‟ by the Arabic speaker, Hungarian learners might misunderstand the word because the first vowel in the loanword „curry‟ is represented with /ø/ in learners‟ L1 lexicon, and it can also be assumed that it is not a word they frequently come across for cultural reasons.

In sum, it can be said that it is problematic to make generalisations on the segmental level about what might cause intelligibility problems for learners when listening to different pronunciations of English. These difficulties can be a result of factors related to various aspects of language including the phonological, the lexical and pragmatic level, which might also interact with each other in different contexts in the utterances (Deterding, 2012). Besides, suggestions of specific sound features which are supposed to affect intelligibility universally across speakers of English ought to be examined critically in the local pedagogical contexts in which such theories are meant to be adopted (Widdowson, 2003), taking into consideration the influence of learners‟ L1 on L2 speech perception (cf. Chuan, 2010).

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processes of learning the unusual features of the accent. The former processes can be said to involve acquisition based on learners‟ intuition, while the latter processes require developing awareness of problematic features and learning them consciously (cf. Krashen, 1982). Learners might use these processes simultaneously, yet it can be suggested, based on Jenkins (2000), that learners are typically inclined to use one strategy rather than the other, which is related to learner differences with regards to preference to top-down or bottom-up processes as it was also reported in the interviews of Study Two related to listening strategies (cf. Section 3.5.1).

Adjusting to speakers‟ pronunciation can be described as tuning learners‟ speech reception to a speaker‟s unfamiliar accent. This involves listening to the accent at length possibly without understanding a considerable amount of detail in the spoken message. During this process, learners can rely on different aspects of their background knowledge as well as metacognition to complement their listening skills using a top-down approach to processing information (Vandergrift & Goh, 2012). They can make use of their pragmatic knowledge of situations by anticipating what language forms may occur at certain points in a situation or during a spoken interaction. In addition, once learners understand certain parts of an utterance, they can use their syntactic and lexical knowledge to predict what language forms are likely to occur in a given context, which also explains the correlation between general language proficiency and the comprehension scores. This unconscious process may be largely dependent on learners‟ aptitude to intuitively and subconsciously render unfamiliar sounds to their mental representations of the phonemes, which would suggest that this skill cannot be taught as such.

However, exposure and extensive listening can help learners in developing this ability (cf.

Renandya & Farrell, 2010), as discussed above in Section 4.3.1, yet such instruction also needs

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to include appropriate support and scaffolding for learners if necessary (cf. Chang & Millett, 2014).

Another strategy which learners report to use in order to overcome comprehension difficulties is the conscious learning of features which are unusual for learners in a speaker‟s pronunciation and which can interfere with intelligibility. When learners manage to identify such a feature in a lexical or phonological context in which the meaning of the utterance can be deciphered, they make note of the variant and use this information to identify the sound in other utterances in which it would otherwise cause misunderstandings. Understanding utterances through deciphering sounds can be regarded as a bottom-up process, yet it also involves interaction with top-down processes in identifying the unfamiliar variant based on the context for the first time. This process can explain the correlation between high test scores and the phonological awareness scale, suggesting that learners who have a high awareness of English pronunciation are able to use this knowledge during speech comprehension.

This finding implies that even though intelligibility problems do not necessarily arise from specific segmental features, it can still be beneficial for learners to develop an awareness of phonological variants in order to develop and enhance this comprehension strategy. Although it is problematic to identify a universal set of phonological features which interfere with intelligibility for all speakers of English in all contexts, there are patterns of variants which frequently re-occur in various ENL, ESL and even EFL pronunciations of English due to universal processes of variation and sound change (cf. Chambers, Trudgill, & Schilling-Estes, 2008). An example for this may be the variability of the dental fricative TH sounds, which can alternate by changing either the place or the manner of articulation. For instance, by changing place of articulation to labial, the sound can be realised as /f/ and /v/ as in Cockney English (cf.

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Wells, 1982), changing the place to alveolar can result in /s/ and /z/ as in a number of EFL pronunciations (Jenkins, 2000), or changing the manner of articulation to plosive yields a /t/ and a /d/ as in various ESL varieties (Wells, 1983) such as Caribbean English or Nigerian English. If learners become aware of only a few such frequently occurring variants through exposure and instruction in ELT, they can make good use of this knowledge when they encounter them in different combinations is various pronunciations of English.

The two processes described above, which can help learners overcome comprehension difficulties with regards to unfamiliar pronunciations of English, require certain cognitive abilities or linguistic knowledge on the part of the learners; however, whether or not or to what extent learners make use of such strategies may also depend on affective factors. During the interviews learners referred to the process of understanding unfamiliar pronunciations of English as a mental burden which temporarily distracts them from the meaning of utterances, and which forces them to make a distinct mental effort to cope with the unfamiliar pronunciation. This implies that making the effort of using comprehension strategies in the first place requires perseverance and a generally positive disposition on the part of the learner involving openness towards diverse accents of English, which can be both correct and comprehensible despite their differences. Therefore, learners can appreciate various English pronunciations for their communicative value regardless of the pronunciations they are familiar with. This underscores the relevance of learners‟ attitudes towards speech varieties of English, which is discussed in the following section.

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