Proficiency, Use of Context and Non-Native Speech Perception in Noise Performance

Abstract

Purpose: The present study evaluated a novel method of quantifying relative use of bottom-up and top-down processing when perceiving speech in challenging listening conditions. Methods: One-hundred seven normal-hearing adults participated as listeners. Fortyseven were Spanish-speaking, second-language learners of English (L2) and 60 were monolingual speakers of English. Using adaptive procedure, signal-to-noise ratios required for 70%-correct recognition of words and sentences (SNR70) were obtained for all listeners. Individual listeners were statistically classified as "native-like" or "non-native" based on the sentence and word SNR70. Results: Despite their native-like performance in quiet, only half of the L2 listeners' SNR70 values were "native-like", whereas the remaining half L2 listeners required more favorable SNR70. Interestingly, although there was no notable difference in language background among the "nonnative" L2 listeners, half of them required more favorable SNR70 for sentences than for words, suggesting inability to use sentence context as effectively as the remaining "non-native" or "native-like" L2 listeners. Conclusion: The results show that the present method may be useful in identifying the shortcomings in listening strategies individual second-language learners use. Such information can possibly serve as a guide to choose exercises and/or training to alleviate difficulty they experience in challenging listening conditions, which may be possibly applicable to other listener populations.

Use of Sentence Context and Speech Perception in Noise for Children Who Were Suspected for Auditory Processing Disorder

“…SNR70 values for children with referral were compared to those for typically-developing peers. Based on the previous results that English-speaking adults require lower SNR70s for sentences than for words possibly due to the benefit of sentence context (Nishi, 2018), it was hypothesized that similar context benefit would be observed for children if they could effectively use sentence context. It was further hypothesized that, if the burden of having difficulty with acousticphonetic cue processing causes a breakdown in context-independent processing of speech for children with referral, and their context-dependent processing is also compromised, then their SNR70 for sentences would be elevated (indicating poorer performance) compared to word SNR70.…”

“…Speech stimuli were the same as those used by Nishi (2018). Briefly, they were words from the Phonetically Balanced Kindergarten (PBK) test (Haskins, 1949) and the sentences from the Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) Standard Sentence Test (Bench & Bamford, 1979).…”

“…The present study was motivated by the acoustic-phonetic view. Nishi (2018) demonstrated that a brief speech-in-noise test can classify differences in listening strategy among highly proficient adult second language learners. The same speech-innoise test was used in the present study to compare the effect of linguistic complexity of stimulus materials on speech recognition between children with reported listening difficulties who failed APD screening and were referred for further diagnostic workup and their typically-developing peers.…”

“…Briefly, in Nishi (2018), listener performance was measured as the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) required for 70%-correct recognition (SNR70) of simple sentences and words that had been extensively used in clinical audiologic testing. Individual listeners were statistically classified as "native-like" or "non-native" based on sentence and word SNR70 values.…”

“…Applying the same method as in Nishi (2018), the present study set out to examine whether children with listening difficulties who were referred for further diagnostic testing due to failed APD screening indeed exhibit increased difficulty perceiving speech in noise as compared to their typically-developing peers. Additional purpose of the present study was to assess whether children with APD referral and their typically-developing peers receive benefit from sentence context in a similar manner.…”