Do Non-Native Speakers Have an Accent?

Students who saw a South Asian person's photo rated the voice as more accented regardless of which variety of English they actually heard. In other words, just seeing a photo of someone they expected to have an accent made it harder for them to accurately understand and transcribe what was said. Researchers speculate that processing costs might also play a role in how non-native speakers are evaluated. Just being familiar with the accent reduces the amount of cognitive processing a listener has to do.

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