Intelligibility : Japanese and Thai tertiary students' perspectives

This article reports on Thai and Japanese university students' perceptions of intelligibility. This study found few students think variability is avoidable when using English. Instead, a majority of the students thought differences in pronunciation, intonation, and accents exist. More Thai than Japanese students tended to agree or strongly agree, and how the students viewed and deal with the variety was significantly different. The article discusses reasons for the students' beliefs before concluding with classroom implications.