The current study looks at the role FL values has concerning the perception that listeners have of the intelligibility and comprehensibility of unclear phonemes in second language speech. A listener's familiarity with accented speech is also considered. Native English listeners from two separate populations - a student population exposed to a variety of second language speech and a community member population with little exposure to accented speech - were presented with recorded speech samples from L1 Japanese speakers of English. The speech samples contained unclear, or non-native like, examples of two separate phoneme pairs: the /r-l/ consonant contrast and the /s-[theta]/ contrast. The first carries a very high functional load value, while the second carries a very low value. Listeners responded to a comprehensibility and intelligibility task that contained examples of both target contrasts. The results indicated that the student population found the speech samples more intelligible and easier to comprehend. The /r-l/ contrast, with a higher FL value, was more difficult for them to transcribe and comprehend than the /s-[theta]/ but these differences were less pronounced for the community member raters. This suggests that, while teachers may be wise to use FL values as a basis for a pronunciation syllabus or instruction, they should be aware that the FL values do not paint the whole picture concerning how listeners respond to errors made in second language speech.
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