Pronunciation features in rating criteria

Various speaking features have been shown to predict second language (L2) speakers' proficiency level and/or cue accentedness. Earlier L2 research has tended to focus on segmental features (i.e., consonant and vowel production) measuring the deviation from a native speaker norm (Jakobson, 1941; Flege & Port, 1981; Macken & Ferguson, 1983). More recent studies have highlighted the importance of suprasegmental features (i.e., features that go beyond consonants and vowels, such as prosody - intonation, stress, and rhythm) particularly in how much prosodic features may contribute to a listener's perception of a speaker's intelligibility or comprehensibility (Hahn, 2004; Kang, 2010). Still, identifying the linguistic components most conducive to NNSs' production of intelligible speech remains a challenge in L2 pronunciation research.