Dynamic Accent Accommodation: Training Learners for World Englishes using Generative Speech

Authors

  • Dr. Mustapha Bayaro Author
  • Dr. Amina Shehu Abdullahi (Mrs.) Author
  • Dr. Philip Abayomi Olorunfemi Lakeside University College, Zambia Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.65921/ny1hcf55

Keywords:

World Englishes; Generative Speech Synthesis; Dynamic Accent Accommodation; Communication Accommodation Theory; Computer-Assisted Language Learning

Abstract

Traditional English Language Teaching (ELT) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) have largely privileged native-speaker pronunciation models, despite the fact that much international communication occurs among speakers from Outer and Expanding Circle English contexts. This paper proposes Dynamic Accent Accommodation (DAA), a conceptual framework that integrates generative speech synthesis with World Englishes pedagogy to develop learners’ receptive flexibility across diverse English accents. Drawing on World Englishes theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, and the Lingua Franca Core, the framework introduces a three-phase Graduated Exposure Model supported by an adaptive human-in-the-loop speech generation architecture. The paper explains the technical logic of accent manipulation, pedagogical task sequencing, and evaluation metrics for measuring auditory processing efficiency, decoding accuracy, and communicative confidence. It also addresses ethical issues related to algorithmic bias, accent authenticity, and linguistic equity. The principal contribution of the study is the formulation of a theoretically grounded and pedagogically operational framework that can guide future empirical research on AI-supported listening instruction and Global Englishes education. Rather than promoting accent imitation, DAA emphasizes intelligibility, perceptual adaptation, and inclusive multilingual communication.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

  • Dr. Mustapha Bayaro

    Mustapha Bayaro, PhD, is a senior lecturer from the Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Technology, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria. He specializes in English language education (Jolly Phonics and TaRL). https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6642-3425

  • Dr. Amina Shehu Abdullahi (Mrs.)

    Amina Shehu Abdullahi, PhD, is a senior lecturer from the Department of Primary Education and Extension Services, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria. She specializes in English language, Primary Education and Adult education. https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3867-9594

  • Dr. Philip Abayomi Olorunfemi, Lakeside University College, Zambia

    Philip Abayomi Olorunfemi, PhD is a poet, novelist and researcher in the Department of English Language Education, Lakeside University College, Zambia. His academic interests include language education, literary studies, digital humanities, and the intersection of technology and textual interpretation. With experience as an editor and a reviewer, he focuses on authorship, intertextuality, and reader participation in literature, contributing to both theoretical and critical studies of contemporary textual production.  https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2092-2406

               

     

References

Bender, E. M., Gebru, T., McMillan-Major, A., & Shmitchell, S. (2021). On the dangers of stochastic parrots: Can language models be too big? In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT '21) (pp. 610–623). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3442188.3445922

Blair, A. (2020). Review of Global Englishes for Language Teaching, by H. Rose & N. Galloway. TESOL Quarterly.

Chang, C. B. (2019). Language change and linguistic inquiry in a world of multicompetence: Sustained phonetic drift and its implications for behavioral linguistic research. Journal of Phonetics, 74, 96–113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2019.03.001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wocn.2019.03.001

Derwing, T. M., & Munro, M. J. (2015). Pronunciation fundamentals: Evidence-based perspectives for L2 teaching and research (Vol. 42). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.42 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.42

Fuchs, R. (2023). Speech rhythm in recent research. In R. Fuchs (Ed.), Speech rhythm in learner and second language varieties of English (pp. 1–21). Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8940-7_1

Galaczi, E., & Pastorino-Campos, C. (2025). Ethical AI for language assessment: Principles, considerations, and emerging tensions. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 45, 294–314. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190525100081 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190525100081

Gardiner, I. A., & David, D. (2020). The features of Asian Englishes: Phonology. In K. Bolton, W. Botha, & A. Kirkpatrick (Eds.), The handbook of Asian Englishes. Wiley-Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882.ch8 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118791882.ch8

Giles, H., & Edwards, A. L. (2025). Communication Accommodation Theory. In C. A. Chapelle & J. E. Bonnin (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal20009 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal20009

Gut, U. (2008). Nigerian English: Phonology. In R. Mesthrie, B. Kortmann, & E. W. Schneider (Eds.), A handbook of varieties of English: Vol. 4. Africa, South and Southeast Asia (pp. 35–54). De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208429.1.35 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110208429.1.35

Jenkins, J. (2000). The phonology of English as an international language. Oxford University Press.

Kachru, B. B. (1992). Teaching world Englishes. In B. B. Kachru (Ed.), The other tongue: English across cultures (pp. 355–365). University of Illinois Press.

Keerstock, S., & Smiljanic, R. (2019). Clear speech improves listeners' recall. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 146(6), 4604. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5141372 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/1.5141372

Lippi-Green, R. (2012). English with an accent: Language, ideology and discrimination in the United States (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203348802 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203348802

Litman, D., Strik, H., & Lim, G. (2018). Speech technologies and the assessment of second language speaking: Approaches, challenges, and opportunities. Language Assessment Quarterly, 15(3), 294–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2018.1472265 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15434303.2018.1472265

Liu, S. (2024). Zero-shot voice conversion with diffusion transformers. arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2411.09943

MacIntyre, P. D. (2007). Willingness to communicate in the second language: Understanding the decision to speak as a volitional process. The Modern Language Journal, 91(4), 564–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00623.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00623.x

Mattys, S. L., Davis, M. H., Bradlow, A. R., & Scott, S. K. (2012). Speech recognition in adverse conditions: A review. Language and Cognitive Processes, 27(7–8), 953–978. https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.705006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01690965.2012.705006

Mohammadreza, D., & Okim, K. (2019). Listener background in L2 speech evaluation. In IntechOpen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89414 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89414

Piazza, G., Kalashnikova, M., & Martin, C. D. (2023). Phonetic accommodation in non-native directed speech supports L2 word learning and pronunciation. Scientific Reports, 13, 21282. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48648-7 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48648-7

Pichora-Fuller, M. K., Kramer, S. E., Eckert, M. A., Edwards, B., Hornsby, B. W. Y., Humes, L. E., Lemke, U., Lunner, T., Matthen, M., Mackersie, C. L., Naylor, G., Phillips, N. A., Richter, M. M., Rudner, M., Sommers, M. S., Tremblay, K. L., & Wingfield, A. (2016). Hearing impairment and cognitive energy: The framework for understanding effortful listening (FUEL). Ear and Hearing, 37(1 Suppl), 5S–27S. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000312 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0000000000000312

Rose, H., McKinley, J., & Galloway, N. (2021). Global Englishes and language teaching: A review of pedagogical research. Language Teaching, 54(2), 157–189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444820000518

Soleymanpour, M., Johnson, M. T., Soleymanpour, R., & Berry, J. (2024). Accurate synthesis of dysarthric speech for ASR data augmentation. Speech Communication, 164, 103112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2024.103112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2024.103112

Strori, D., Bradlow, A. R., & Souza, P. E. (2020). Recognition of foreign-accented speech in noise: The interplay between talker intelligibility and linguistic structure. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 147(6), 3765. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0001194 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0001194

Tan, X., Qin, T., Soong, F., & Liu, T.-Y. (2024). A survey on neural speech synthesis. *IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 46(6), 4234–4245. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TPAMI.2024.3356232

Udofot, I. (2003). Stress and rhythm in the Nigerian accent of English: A preliminary investigation. English World-Wide, 24(2), 201–220. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.24.2.04udo DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.24.2.04udo

Wang, Z., Zou, D., Lee, L. K., Xie, H., & Wang, F. L. (2023). A systematic review of generative artificial intelligence in language education. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education. https://doi.org/10.58459/icce.2023.1199 DOI: https://doi.org/10.58459/icce.2023.1199

Weidinger, L., Uesato, J., Rauh, M., Griffin, C., Huang, P.-S., Mellor, J., Glaese, A., Cheng, M., Balle, B., Kasirzadeh, A., Biles, C., Brown, S., Kenton, Z., Hawkins, W., Stepleton, T., Birhane, A., Hendricks, L. A., Rimell, L., Isaac, W., & Gabriel, I. (2022). Taxonomy of risks posed by language models. In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp. 214–229). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533088 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3531146.3533088

Published

15-09-2026

Data Availability Statement

Nil

Issue

Section

Original Research Paper

How to Cite

Bayaro, M., Shehu Abdullahi, A., & Abayomi Olorunfemi, P. (2026). Dynamic Accent Accommodation: Training Learners for World Englishes using Generative Speech. Academos Journal, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.65921/ny1hcf55