Testing the Lingua Franca Core: The intelligibility of flaps

Abstract

Over twenty years ago, Jenkins (2000) put forth the Lingua Franca Core (LFC), a pronunciation syllabus for international intelligibility among non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. Although insufficient empirical research has been directed to validating the LFC proposals, the few studies that have tested this syllabus have produced mixed findings. One of the core features of the LFC is the use of British-based /t/, rather than General American (GA) flap [ɾ], which allegedly has a negative impact on English as lingua franca (ELF) intelligibility. There are, however, three additional types of flap in accents such as GA. In the current study, the intelligibility of the four types of flap typical of GA were tested experimentally, in the context of learners at an intermediate level with four European language backgrounds (n = 78). Using a matched-guise technique, learners were presented with the flapped and non-flapped versions of words including the four types of flap. The results of two experiments indicate that three of the four types of flap proved detrimental for ELF intelligibility to a large extent. More expectedly, word frequency and experience with GA were moderately associated with flap intelligibility.