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Auditory free classification of native and nonnative speech by nonnative listeners

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2014

ERIKO ATAGI  and
TESSA BENT
ERIKO ATAGI
Affiliation:
Indiana University
TESSA BENT*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Tessa Bent, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, 200 South Jordan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Nonnative listeners are less accurate than native listeners at identifying, categorizing, and classifying native talkers’ accents, suggesting a decrement in nonnative listeners’ representation of native variation. Nonnative listeners’ representation of nonnative variation, however, may be as robust as, or more robust than, that of native listeners. To compare native and nonnative listeners’ representations of linguistic variation, the current study examined native English, Korean, and Spanish listeners’ classification of native and nonnative talkers by native language. Overall, the listener groups performed with similar accuracy, but they exhibited different perceptual similarity spaces. Specifically, listener groups demonstrated heightened perceptual sensitivity to talkers with whom they share a native language. The results suggest that listeners’ linguistic experiences significantly shape their perceptual representation of nonnative varieties.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , March 2016 , pp. 241 - 263
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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