Applied Psycholinguistics 37 (2016), 303–322 doi:10.1017 /S0142716414000575 The relative contribution of segments and intonation to the perception of foreign-accented speech JOAN SERENO, LYNNE LAMMERS, and ALLARD JONGMAN University of Kansas Received: January 7, 2014 Accepted for publication: October 20, 2014 ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Joan Sereno, 425 Blake Hall, 1541 Lilac Lane, Linguistics Department, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045. E-mail: Sereno@ku.edu ABSTRACT The present study examines the relative impact of segments and intonation on accentedness, com- prehensibility, and intelligibility, specifically investigating the separate contribution of segmental and intonational information to perceived foreign accent in Korean-accented English. Two English speak- ers and two Korean speakers recorded 40 English sentences. The sentences were manipulated by combining segments from one speaker with intonation (fundamental frequency contour and duration) from another speaker. Four versions of each sentence were created: one English control (English segments and English intonation), one Korean control (Korean segments and Korean intonation), and two Korean–English combinations (one with English segments and Korean intonation; the other with Korean segments and English intonation). Forty native English speakers transcribed the sentences for intelligibility and rated their comprehensibility and accentedness. The data show that segments had a significant effect on accentedness, comprehensibility, and intelligibility, but intonation only had an effect on intelligibility. Contrary to previous studies, the present study, separating segments from into- nation, suggests that segmental information contributes substantially more to the perception of foreign accentedness than intonation. Native speakers seem to rely mainly on segments when determining foreign accentedness. When adults learn to speak a second language, their nonnative speech is often identified as accented (Flege, Munro, & MacKay, 1995). Second language ac- quisition typically requires learning new motor patterns, creating new phoneme categories, and reorganizing existing phoneme boundaries. Adult learners’ diffi- culty in mastering any of these aspects leads to pronunciations that deviate from the native norm, resulting in speech that sounds accented and may also be diffi- cult to understand (e.g., Anderson-Hsieh, Johnson, & Koehler, 1992; Edwards & Zampini, 2008; Munro & Derwing, 1995). These difficulties in second language pronunciation typically include both segmental and suprasegmental features (e.g., Edwards & Zampini, 2008; Major, 2001; van Els & de Bot, 1987). © Cambridge University Press 2014 0142-7164/14