How Spanish Speakers’ Pronunciation Affects Understanding in English

What is it about?

This study looks at how Spanish university students pronounce English and how that affects whether international listeners understand them. We recorded 60 advanced Spanish speakers of English and analysed specific sounds that are often difficult for Spanish learners, such as certain vowels, consonants like /v/ and /z/, consonant clusters (like “st” in stay), and the pronunciation of past tense endings. We then asked 330 listeners from many language backgrounds to rate how easy the speakers were to understand and how strong their foreign accent sounded. Apart from subjective ratings, real understanding was also measured. We created a score that reflects how accurately each speaker produced key English sounds. We found that the more accurately these sounds were pronounced, the easier the speakers were to understand and the less strong their accent was perceived to be. Some types of sounds were especially important. For example, correctly pronouncing the “p”, “t”, and “k” sounds with proper aspiration (a small burst of air) strongly predicted how listeners judged both clarity and accent. Interestingly, even advanced learners still had difficulties with certain sounds, especially some vowels and voiced consonants like /z/ and /ʒ/. This shows that pronunciation challenges can remain even at high levels of English.

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Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research matters because English is mostly used today between non-native speakers from different language backgrounds (English as a Lingua Franca). Clear pronunciation is therefore essential for international communication. For teachers, the study offers insight into which pronunciation features may truly make a difference for understanding, and which sounds are problematic even at higher levels. Instead of trying to eliminate every trace of an accent, instruction can focus on difficult sounds that may affect clarity. For learners, the findings show that improving specific sounds can significantly increase how easy they are to understand, even without aiming to sound “native-like". For researchers and curriculum designers, the study provides large-scale data (60 speakers, 330 listeners) associating measurable pronunciation features with real listener judgments. It helps move the discussion from intuition to evidence.

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