title: Second-language experience and speech-in-noise recognition: effects of talker-listener accent similarity.
abstract: Previous work has shown that the intelligibility of speech in noise is degraded if the speaker and listener differ in accent, in particular when there is a disparity between native (L1) and nonnative (L2) accents. This study investigated how this talker-listener interaction is modulated by L2 experience and accent similarity. L1 Southern British English, L1 French listeners with varying L2 English experience, and French-English bilinguals were tested on the recognition of English sentences mixed in speech-shaped noise that was spoken with a range of accents (French, Korean, Northern Irish, and Southern British English). The results demonstrated clear interactions of accent and experience, with the least experienced French speakers being most accurate with French-accented English, but more experienced listeners being most accurate with L1 Southern British English accents. An acoustic similarity metric was applied to the speech productions of the talkers and the listeners, and significant correlations were obtained between accent similarity and sentence intelligibility for pairs of individuals. Overall, the results suggest that L2 experience affects talker-listener accent interactions, altering both the intelligibility of different accents and the selectivity of accent processing.
authors: University College London, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield Street, London WC1N 1PF, United Kingdom. m.pinet@ucl.ac.uk
authors: Melanie
authors: M
authors: Pinet
authors: Paul
authors: P
authors: Iverson
authors: Mark
authors: M
authors: Huckvale
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019303:Multilingualism; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult