An Analysis of English Speech Intelligibility for Junior Middle School Students in China

Abstract The speech intelligibility is the precondition for successful communication, and plays a very significant role in our daily communication no matter in inter-linguistic communication or intra-linguistic communication. In verbal communication, intelligibility is a measure of how comprehensible the speech is in given conditions. Intelligibility is affected by the quality of the speech signal, the type and level of background noise, reverberation, the properties of the communication system, and so on. The first chapter briefly introduces the importance of understanding the language and some factors that contribute to language comprehension which have already been studied. Meanwhile it defines the direction, scope, content, and mission of the research. The second chapter summarizes the factors that influence language comprehension that are relevant to this study. The factors of the research will be pided into two categories: non-linguistic factors and linguistic factors. Non-linguistic factors include visual stimulus, reverberation time and so on. Linguistic factors include accent, language proficiency, teacher talk and China English. There is a brief summary of this chapter at the end. The third chapter is about research methods: experimental design, material preparation, participants selection, experimental procedures, data collection and data analysis. The last chapter summarizes the experimental results, implications for English teaching, the limitations of the experiment and the prospect of further research.49360

Keyword: speech intelligibility; teacher talk; China English; thinking pattern

对英语课堂中初中生的英语语言理解力的分析

摘要对语言的理解是成功沟通的前提，在跨语言或同语言的日常交流过程中扮演着非常重要的角色，促进着社会个体间的沟通互动。在语言交流中，可理解性是衡量语言在特定情景下被理解程度的手段。可理解性受许多因素的影响，如语音信号的类型、背景噪声等。论文第一章简要介绍了语言理解力的重要性及一些已经被研究过的有助于语言理解的因素。同时限定本论文的调查的方向、范围和内容，以及研究的任务。第二章总结与本研究相关的影响语言理解力的因素。作者将其分为两类的因素：非语言因素和语言因素。非语言因素里包括视觉刺激辅助、混响时间等。语言因素里包括口音、语言能力水平、教师话语和中国英语。最后再对本章内容作简要总结。第三章是关于研究方法，包括实验设计、实验材料的准备、实验被试的选择、实验过程、数据收集和数据分析。最后一章主要总结了实验结果、对于英语教学的启示和建议、实验调查的局限性以及进一步研究的前景。

毕业论文关键词：语言理解力； 中国英语； 教师话语； 思维模式

Contents 

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Purpose of the research 2

1.3 Structure of the thesis 2

2 Literature review 3

2.1 Non-Linguistic Factors 3

2.1.1 Visual Stimulus 3

2.1.2 Others 3

2.2 Linguistic Factors 4

2.2.1 Accent 4

2.2.2 Language Proficiency 4

2.2.3 Teacher Talk 5

2.2.4 China English 5

2.3 Conclusion 6