FOREIGNERTALK

A register sometimes employed by native speakers when addressing non-native ones. The term relates to linguistic features of the register; while foreigner discourse (FD) includes wider characteristics such as the types of interaction between native and non-native speakers.

In English, foreigner talk (FT) is characterised phonologically by:

slower speech rate;

greater pausing; . greater segmentation of words;

increased stress marking;

more careful articulation;

reduced assimilation.

Lexis is usually simplified, relying on high-frequency items and avoiding idiom and slang. Syntax uses a limited range of basic structures and sometimes omits functors and inflections. There is a preference for transparent forms (e.g. full rather than contracted forms), for shorter utterances and for co-ordination rather than subordination. The standard SVO word order is adhered to quite strictly, though there may be some fronting of the current topic of conversation.

FT is also characterised by a low level of information per sentence and by a high level of redundancy, including repetition and rephrasing. It may employ syntactic forms which are incorrect (you no like?).

Attempts have been made to establish which features of FT most assist understanding. It has been suggested that slower delivery has more impact upon understanding than does linguistic modification. Repetition and rephrasing are particularly effective.

Foreigner talk appears to exist in most cultures. It is of special interest to psycholinguists because it is relatively consistent across individual speakers of a given language. It is employed by children, even at a relatively young age; and it has many features in common with child directed speech (CDS) and with pidgin languages. Hence a theory that human beings may possess universal simplification strategies as part of their linguistic competence. Alternatively, CDS and FT may show residual traces of the Universal Grammar which enabled us to acquire our first language. Or it may be that we regress to our own experience of learning our first language and thus identify the features which were most salient to us at the time.

Opposed to these hypotheses are interactional accounts, which suggest that FT and FD chiefly arise from the way in which a speaker accommodates to the language of their interlocutor. There is certainly evidence of accommodation at word and phrase level, with native-speakers echoing incorrect forms used by non-natives. In addition, the extent to which FT deviates from normal adult speech is partly determined by the speaker’s assessment of the level of linguistic knowledge of the non-native listener (NNL), the speaker’s previous experience of such interactions and the extent to which the speaker empathises with the NNL. Recent work in FD has particularly concerned itself with the negotiation of meaning that takes place when interlocutors do not share the same native language; and with the kinds of repair strategy that are employed when communication breaks down.

See also: Child Directed Speech, Input

Further reading: Ellis (1985); Wesche (1994)

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