Abstract

Oral proficiency is known to impact communication success in non-native English speakers. Twenty-seven native speakers of Mandarin, Non-Continental Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi were assessed on oral proficiency. Auditory discrimination tasks, oral reading, verbal repetition, and two discourse samples were analyzed for intelligibility and other prosodic and articulatory features. Results indicate that auditory discrimination skill does not affect intelligibility of speakers across varying contexts. For Mandarin and Hindi speakers, discourse appears more challenging than oral reading and verbal imitation. Therapy techniques to improve oral proficiency should focus on reducing rate of speech for non-Mandarin speakers, and improving intonation pattern for Mandarin speakers.