Abstract:

Previous studies have shown that listeners who learned a second language later in life have poorer speech recognition compared to native listeners, particularly under difficult listening conditions. We are interested in quantifying this demonstrated deficit experienced by non-native listeners as a function of the length of the exposure to the second language. In particular, we are interested in modeling it in terms of Plomp's D factor. In Plomp's model [J. Speech Hear. Res. 29, 146--154 (1986)], D is defined as a hearing loss due to distortion. We tested listeners whose first language is Spanish with English phonemes, words and sentences in noise, and with reduced spectral information. Preliminary results showed that D increased with an increased loss of spectral resolution. D also increased with the age of immersion in the second language. These results suggest that a lack of experience with the second language may be modeled as a type of hearing loss. Other issues of interest to us in this study are: the effect of the conflicting vowel spaces of the two languages in vowel recognition and the use of context by non-native listeners compared to native English listeners. [Work supported by NIDCD.]