English

This research aimed to study the intelligibility of Philippine English to Korean students. Specifically, it aimed to answer the following questions: (a) How intelligible is Philippine English to Korean students? (b) What is Korean students’ perception of Philippine English? And  (c) How does Koreans students’ proficiency in English affect intelligibility? The researchers used both objective (fill-in-the-blanks) type and subjective (survey) type of test in measuring intelligibility. Twenty South Korean students from the Far Eastern University (FEU) in Manila, Philippines were the participants of this study. The first 10 participants are Korean non-native speakers majoring in English language while the remaining 10 participants are non-native speakers not majoring in English language. The researchers recorded a two-minute speech by a Filipino speaker. The twenty listeners were divided randomly into four batches. While the recording was playing, the listeners transcribed by answering the fill-in-the-blanks questionnaire. After one minute, they were given the survey questionnaire containing questions about the listeners’ perception of the recorded speech. Same process was done to all batches. Results show that Korean students who major in English find Philippine English 61% intelligible while the same is found to be 40% intelligible by Korean non-English majors. On average, Philippine English is 51% intelligible to Korean students. Sixty percent of the participants did not find the speaker easy to understand even though their average intelligibility rate is considerably high. Unsurprisingly, 80% also answered that they understand NS’ accent specifically, American accent better than the Filipino speaker’s and 85% of the participants wanted to sound like an American or British when speaking English. The results also suggest that proficiency and practice affect intelligibility more than the length of stay in the country.