Perception of Native English Reduced Forms in Adverse Environments by Chinese Undergraduate Students

Previous research has shown that learners of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) have difficulties in understanding connected speech spoken by native English speakers. Extending from past research limited to quiet listening condition, this study examined the perception of English connected speech pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of psycholinguistic research 2017-10, Vol.46 (5), p.1149-1165
Main Authors: Wong, Simpson W. L., Tsui, Jenny K. Y., Chow, Bonnie Wing-Yin, Leung, Vina W. H., Mok, Peggy, Chung, Kevin Kien-Hoa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustics
Auditory Perception
Auditory Perception - physiology
Behavioral Science and Psychology
China
Chinese languages
Cognitive Psychology
College students
Comprehension
Connected Discourse
English (Second Language)
English as a second language learning
Female
Foreign Countries
Humans
Listening
Listening Comprehension
Male
Multilingualism
Native Speakers
Noise
Noise - adverse effects
Perceptual Masking
Psycholinguistics
Psychology
Recognition (Psychology)
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Speech Acoustics
Speech Intelligibility
Speech perception
Speech Perception - physiology
Spoken language
Task Analysis
Teaching Methods
Undergraduate Students
Whispering
Young Adult
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Summary:Previous research has shown that learners of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) have difficulties in understanding connected speech spoken by native English speakers. Extending from past research limited to quiet listening condition, this study examined the perception of English connected speech presented under five adverse conditions, namely multi-talker babble noise, speech-shaped noise, factory noise, whispering and sad emotional tones. We tested a total of 64 Chinese ESL undergraduate students, using a battery of listening tasks. Results confirmed that the recognition of English native speech was more challenging for Chinese ESL learners under unfavorable listening conditions, in comparison to a noise-free listening condition. These findings carry significant implications for the importance of training and assessments on connected speech perception across various listening environments.
ISSN:0090-6905
1573-6555
DOI:10.1007/s10936-017-9486-y