Dear all, 

BK21 invites all students and faculty members to join the special guest lecture by Prof. Okim Kang, on Friday June 7th, 3PM-5PM in Oesol (외솔관) Room 526. 

All BK students who major in linguistics must attend the lecture.  If you are unable to attend the lecture, please submit the absence form attached to this email. 

As part of Prof. Seok-Chae Rhee's phonetics course, Prof. Kang's lecture will cover the topics of accent and variability in second language speech. 

Prof. Okim Kang is a Professor of English at Northern Arizona University. Her research interests include second language acquisition, specializing in pronunciation, speech intelligibility, and prosody. Her research explores accented speech assessment, the influence of listener backgrounds on speech evaluation, and the development of automated scoring systems for language proficiency. Prof. Kang is also dedicated to studying linguistic discrimination and the sociocultural aspects of language use. Some of Prof. Kang's more recent publications include Kang, O., Johnson, D., & Kermad, A.  Second language prosody and computer modeling. Routledge (2021), Ghanem, R., Kang, O., & Kostromitina, M. Linguistic analysis of spoken English. Routledge (2023), Kang, O. & Thomson, R. Research methods in second language speech, Routledge (Forthcoming). 

The title of the lecture is "Intelligibility in Global Contexts: Accent and Variability in Second Language Speech"

With the rise of English as an international language, there is an increasing need for a comprehensive understanding of accent on the part of both English instructors and learners. Accented speech can advantage or disadvantage a speaker beyond day-to-day interactions; currently, however, intelligibility-based communication has been emphasized over native-like accents in the era of globalization. Establishing intelligibility is a complex endeavor, but some existing literature provides a starting point for considering which features contribute to speech that is adequate for listeners. In this presentation, the presenter will review the concepts of intelligibility and accent, and describe listener and speaker variability, along with the relationship between speech properties and listener perception of second language (L2) speech, and explain the variance attributable to listener background and attitudinal factors. Then, she will give an overview of current research issues in L2 intelligibility (i.e., mutual intelligibility, characteristics of intelligible speech, intelligibility measurement, and intelligibility-based instruction). She will conclude with a discussion of recent trends in learning and teaching successful communication skills in the context of Global Englishes.