Comprehensibility — how easily a listener can understand a speaker — lies at the heart of successful communication. Yet in language testing, it has often been treated inconsistently. Sometimes it’s broken down into isolated linguistic features, disconnected from real-world communication. Other times, it’s judged intuitively, based on an assessor’s general impression, without considering the listener’s role or broader context.

This monograph proposes a new way forward. It argues that comprehensibility should be understood as a multidimensional construct, shaped by both linguistic and socio-pragmatic factors. By taking this broader view, the work aims to strengthen how we define, analyse, and assess spoken language ability, benefiting both second language assessment and second language acquisition research.

This work is licensed under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

The ebook is free of charge and can be accessed at the link below. Open Access funded by University of Reading.