ABSTRACT
The present study preliminarily explored the performance and views on English pronunciation of a group of Spanish university students receiving English medium-instruction (EMI) in History and Economics degrees. The students’ speech was recorded and analysed for intelligibility and comprehensibility at word level by a group of English native listeners, by a group of Spanish native L2 listeners and by a group of non-Spanish L2 listeners (Polish and Chinese). In addition, the students were recorded in a discussion session in which they answered some open-ended questions about their views and expectations on English pronunciation. The oral production examination showed that they were only moderately understood by all listeners. It revealed very few significant differences regarding intelligibility amongst the listener groups. However, the Spanish listeners reported less difficulty in understanding the speakers, indicating that same-L1 background may benefit comprehensibility. The data also revealed that these students do not always feel comfortable with their pronunciation skills, but that they value intelligibility over good (native-like) pronunciation, unlike students of English Studies and Linguistics. This investigation indicates that EMI students may be in the position of benefiting from teacher actions that facilitate autonomous pronunciation practice or support learners by making them reflect healthily on individual and social aspects of English pronunciation such as interspeaker intelligibility and comprehensibility or aptitude, all of which may help them increase their confidence, awareness and eventually become more proficient English speakers.
