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

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the students who participated in this study. We are also grateful to Lauren Couillard, Marnie Evans, and Marianne Katherine Hewitt, who helped with the preparation of speech stimuli.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Simpson W. L. Wong, Jenny K. Y. Tsui & Vina W. H. Leung

  2. Department of Applied Social Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Bonnie Wing-Yin Chow

  3. Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong

    Peggy Mok

  4. Department of Early Childhood Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Kevin Kien-Hoa Chung

  5. Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

    Kevin Kien-Hoa Chung

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  1. Simpson W. L. Wong
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  2. Jenny K. Y. Tsui
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  4. Vina W. H. Leung
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Correspondence to Simpson W. L. Wong.

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Funding

This study was funded by Research Grants Council (RGC) of the University Grants Committee (UGC), Hong Kong (ECS 846212) and Internal Research Grant of the Education University of Hong Kong (RG72/2015-2016).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Wong, S.W.L., Tsui, J.K.Y., Chow, B.WY. et al. Perception of Native English Reduced Forms in Adverse Environments by Chinese Undergraduate Students. J Psycholinguist Res 46, 1149–1165 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9486-y

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