Following a Complex Dynamic approach, this work aims to discuss the constructs of L2 speech ‘intelligibility’ and ‘comprehensibility’ in the shared comprehension process between Haitian speakers and Brazilian listeners. Our longitudinal data reinforce the dynamic assumption that variability is a key concept for both L2 pronunciation development and teaching.
Moving to a new country sometimes creates the need of learning a new language and, with this, pronunciation issues may emerge. An agenda of studies has been trying to shed some light to pronunciation phenomena through the lens of intelligibility and comprehensibility studies (Derwing & Munro, 2015) as complex, dynamic and multimodal constructs (Nagle, Trofimovich and Bergeron, 2019; Albuquerque, 2019). Therefore, this work presents the results of a 12-point longitudinal data collection conducted with Haitian speakers (learners of Brazilian Portuguese as an L2) when listened by Brazilian participants, and discusses their shared intelligibility and comprehensibility process throughout time. The study included a word repetition task (aiming to obtain the listeners’ oral comprehension of the speakers’ oral production) and a comprehensibility task (with a 9-point Likert scale). Decision time was also measured throughout the task, as a complementary variable to the two constructs. The data were analysed using dynamic analyses (min and max graphs, Monte Carlo simulations) in order to obtain results concerning learning peaks and moving correlations. As for the learning peaks, the word repetition task showed significant peaks especially for Speaker 6 (the most proficient) and the Likert scale results pointed out to Speaker 5 (the one with a higher length of residence in Brazil). As for the decision time measurements, results were fuzzier, since there was a great deal of variability. Regarding the moving correlations, intelligibility and comprehensibility tasks showed supportive relationships. However, moving correlations involving decision time measurements tended to present more competitive relationships. The results indicate the importance of individual differences between listener-speaker relationships, as variability may lead to learning (Lowie and Verspoor, 2019). Our general findings suggest the benefits of a dynamic view in the analysis of intelligibility and comprehensibility, having important implications for the studies on language development and L2 pronunciation teaching.
