Investigating the linguistic and contextual parameters of the construct of comprehensibility

In today's world, it is of great importance to communicate using a foreign language. Although scholars have addressed "comprehensibility" for a long time, it has often been associated with accent or pronunciation. Further, they also believed that making a speech comprehensible is mainly the speaker's responsibility. In most studies, the judgments of the listeners are the main determinants of comprehensibility. However, the linguistic and contextual factors that contribute to the listeners' perceptions of comprehensibility have not been addressed. Further, it has become a common fact that English is spoken in many different countries and with many different accents in the globalized world. Therefore, this study explores the potential effects of contextual factors which may influence comprehensibility over and beyond linguistic factors. More specifically, linguistic and contextual factors that may affect the concept of "comprehensibility" were investigated. To collect data, speech samples on three different tasks were collected from B1 level English preparatory students of a state university in Turkey. Speech samples were rated both by native and non-native speakers of English for comprehensibility. Further some bio-info of the participants were collected to explore the effect of one's background on their comprehensibility perceptions. Furthermore, during a think-aloud procedure, the rating process was followed to delve into the raters' ideas on comprehensibility better. As a result of the data obtained, a new comprehensibility scale that arose out of the research was developed and piloted with 31 raters. Consecutively, the factor analysis was conducted, and after the necessary improvements, the scale was sent to 61 native and 61 non-native speakers for the main administration. In the final step, the factor analysis and the regression analysis were done, the results were analyzed and the raters' perceptions of comprehensibility were defined and compared. Finally, the scale which arose out of the research was finalized and a new comprehensibility model was suggested. Keywords: comprehensibility, intelligibility, nativelikeness, accentedness, L2 oral proficiency, communicative competence, raters' comprehensibility perceptions