Spoken word recognition by non-native listeners

Abstract

While the ability to perceive novel phoneme contrasts is necessary for accurate spoken word recognition by non-native listeners, it is likely that novel phoneme perception functions in a linguistically meaningful manner only once the contrast in question signals a known lexical contrast. In other words, knowledge of the sound-based structure of the target language lexicon is just as important for non-native speech perception as experience with the structure of the target language phoneme inventory. In order to understand non-native speech perception fully, there is a need to investigate recognition of word-sized units by non-native listeners using stimulus materials that are well controlled in terms of the sound-based structure of the target language lexicon. Accordingly, how non-native listeners recognize English words under conditions known to affect spoken word recognition by native English listeners was investigated. Results showed that the ability to take advantage of consistent surface phonetic information, such as a consistent talker across items, is a perceptual skill that transfers easily from first to second language perception. However, non-native listeners had particular difficulty with words that are easily confused with other similar sounding words, suggesting that non-native word recognition may be compromised when fine phonetic discrimation at the segmental level is required.