Introduction

The assessment of second language (L2) speaking proficiency has been of central interest to researchers in Applied Linguistics since the first discussions of communicative competence (Hymes, 1972; Canale & Swain, 1980); however, research on pronunciation, once marginalized in part due to its association with discrete aspects of oral production (Lado, 1961, 1964), is now emerging as a revitalized field of inquiry with its own important implications and concerns. Part of this resurgence can be attributed to a shift in focus from perceptions of accentedness to broader aspects of performance, primarily intelligibility and comprehensibility.