Assessment in Second Language Pronunciation

Okim Kang is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics/TESL at Northern Arizona University, USA.April Ginther is Associate Professor of Second Language Studies at Purdue University, USA.

"This volume revitalizes the field of second language pronunciation assessment, offering new and diverse scholarly insights on features of pronunciation and how these are perceived and evaluated by listeners and trained raters, on the challenges to test validity posed by shifting pronunciation norms, and on technological advances in measurement. Essential reading for pronunciation researchers, professional language testers and graduate students of language assessment, the book will also be illuminating for ESL teachers and applied linguists more generally."Catherine Elder, University of Melbourne, Australia

• Introduction - Okim Kang and April GintherPart 1: Current Issues in Pronunciation Assessment Measurement of Accentedness, Intelligibility, and Comprehensibility - Ron Thomson Validity in Pronunciation Assessment - Luke Harding Pronunciation Assessment in the Context of World Englishes - Slobadanka Dimova Listeners and Raters: Similarities and Differences in Evaluation of Accented Speech - Xun Yan and April Ginther Assessing Pronunciation for Research Purposes with Listener-Based Numerical Scales - Daniel R. Isbell Part II: Technology and Pronunciation Assessment Pronunciation Features in Rating Criteria - Romy Ghanem and Okim Kang Using Speech Processing Technology in Assessing Pronunciation - Alistair Van Moere and Masa Suzuki Automated Assessment of Pronunciation in Spontaneous Speech - Anastassia Loukina, Larry Davis, and Xiaoming Xi