Journal of Second Language Pronunciation - Online First

While research on accent bias has demonstrated the potential real-world impact of speaking with a second language accent, the results of this work rarely make their way into the hands of practitioners. Inspired by participatory action research models, this contribution responds to calls to more actively engage community members in research. Co-researchers in the current project include 18 individuals in two cities, Montreal and Burnaby (Canada): six academic facilitators, seven undergraduate HR management majors, and five community members unaffiliated with a university. The collaborative work included an introductory workshop focused on the establishment of a shared understanding of accent bias along with a series of co-design and implementation meetings. The work culminated in the creation of 10 mini-projects focused on raising awareness about accent bias. We share details of the process, insights from community members, and recommendations for those wishing to undertake a similar journey.

The pronunciation of the Spanish phonemes /b d ɡ/ is challenging for L2 learners, but most studies have relied on native speakers of English. This study examines the pronunciation of stop and approximant variants of Spanish /b d ɡ/ in two groups of Czech learners, 9 more and 9 less experienced users of Spanish, and compares it with the Spanish pronunciation norm as well as a group of 9 native speakers of Spanish. In total, 3280 items were coded as stop or approximant; alveolar productions of Spanish dental /d/ and labiodental productions of spelled were also noted. Logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of a correct realization, and exploratory analyses were used for finer articulation place distinctions. The Spanish dental /d/ was revealed as most difficult for the Czech learners. A clear effect of spelling was shown for . Interesting cases of connected speech processes were also documented.