Notes from PELT - Intelligibility

INTELLIGIBILITY
The degree to which a message can be understood (...)

Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics


The degree to which speech can be understood. With specific reference to speech communication system specification and testing, intelligibility denotes the extent to which trained listeners can identify words or phrases that are spoken by trained talkers and transmitted to the listeners via the communication system.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


“There has been a recent growth of interest in a related area of the study of English pronunciation, sometimes referred to as English as an International Language. Since English is now used by so many people around the world for international communication, it is possible to see pronunciation varieties emerging which are not based primarily on the native-speaker accent of some part of the English speaking world. Instead, they show English as a global ‘common property’ in which key phonetic and phonological distinctions are retained, but choosing to sound, for example, English or American seems irrelevant.”

Roach, P. (2001) Phonetics. OUP.

Why study pronunciation?
Make a good impression
Analyze language.
Improve fluency.
Understand spelling better.
Sound as a competent L2 user.
Improve listening comprehension skills.