title: How noise and language proficiency influence speech recognition by individual non-native listeners.
abstract: This study investigated how speech recognition in noise is affected by language proficiency for individual non-native speakers. The recognition of English and Chinese sentences was measured as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in sixty native Chinese speakers who never lived in an English-speaking environment. The recognition score for speech in quiet (which varied from 15%-92%) was found to be uncorrelated with speech recognition threshold (SRTQ/2), i.e. the SNR at which the recognition score drops to 50% of the recognition score in quiet. This result demonstrates separable contributions of language proficiency and auditory processing to speech recognition in noise.
authors.affiliation: College of Mathematics and Computer Science, Hunan Normal University, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Mathematics and Computer Science, Hunan Normal University, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Lingli
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: School of Software, Hunan University, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Yongjun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, United States of America.
authors.forename: Monita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chatterjee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Nai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ding
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009622:Noise; D011594:Psychometrics; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013060:Speech; D055815:Young Adult