International Journal of English and Literature

The aim of this case study is to extend the work of Jenkins (2000, 2002) in identifying aspects of speech which decrease intelligibility in spoken interactions between non-native English speakers.Two native Hindi speakers and one native Spanish speaker (the first author) were recorded engaging in a two-hour spontaneous conversation in English.Speech transcripts from only four separate episodes of communication breakdown were analyzed for aspects of speech which caused unintelligibility.Data analyses revealed that substitutions of individual sounds and deviations of lexical stress were the factors which affected intelligibility the most.Implications for researching and teaching English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) are discussed.