Quantifying the intelligibility of speech in noise for non-native talkers
article
The intelligibility of speech pronounced by non-native talkers is generally lower than speech pronounced by native talkers, especially under adverse conditions, such as high levels of background noise. The effect of foreign accent on speech intelligibility was investigated quantitatively through a series of experiments involving voices of 15 talkers, differing in language background, age of second-language (L2) acquisition and experience with the target language (Dutch). Overall speech intelligibility of L2 talkers in noise is predicted with a reasonable accuracy from accent ratings by native listeners, as well as from the self-ratings for proficiency of L2 talkers. For non-native speech, unlike native speech, the intelligibility of short messages (sentences) cannot be fully predicted by phoneme-based intelligibility tests. Although incorrect recognition of specific phonemes certainly occurs as a result of foreign accent, the effect of reduced phoneme recognition on the intelligibility of sentences may range from severe to virtually absent, depending on (for instance) the speech-to-noise ratio. Objective acoustic-phonetic analyses of accented speech were also carried out, but satisfactory overall predictions of speech intelligibility could not be obtained with relatively simple acoustic-phonetic measures. © 2002 Acoustical Society of America.
Topics
Acoustic noise measurementSpeech processingSpeech recognitionNon-native talkersAcoustic noiseacousticsaccuracyacousticsadultarticlehumanhuman experimentlanguagenative speciesNetherlandsnoisenormal humanphonemephoneticspredictionpriority journalquantitative analysisself conceptspeech intelligibilityvoicefemalelanguagemaleperceptionperception disordersound detectionspeechspeech audiometryspeech perceptionAdultFemaleHumansMaleMultilingualismPerceptual DistortionPerceptual MaskingPhoneticsSound SpectrographySpeech AcousticsSpeech IntelligibilitySpeech PerceptionSpeech Reception Threshold Test
TNO Identifier
953582
ISSN
00014966
Source
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 112(6), pp. 3004-3013.
Pages
3004-3013
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