How Czech Speech of Russian-Speaking Learners is perceived by Native Speakers of Czech and its Correlation with Age Factors and Language Competence
Abstract
In this chapter, we analyze the question of how native speakers of Czech perceive and evaluate the speech of Russian-speaking learners from the point of view of their level of acquisition of the phonetic system of Czech. The evaluation of oral expression by these learners, obtained on the basis of a perception test, is compared with the results of a grammar test and a test of the general level of language competence (C-test).
Another aim of this study is to find out whether there is any interdependence between the degree of acceptability of the learners' speech and the age when they arrived in the Czech Republic, their current age and length of residence. The authors also attempt to determine which phonetic features influence the opinion of the native speakers, i.e. what precisely in the speech indicates the accent to the Czech listener.