Childhood speaking experience and perception of sentences in noise

Abstract

Perceiving sentences in noise is a challenge for non-native speakers. Does childhood experience with a language help adult learners hear sentences in noise better? Nineteen native Spanish speakers, seven childhood speakers who had spoken Spanish fluently for several years during childhood before becoming predominantly English speaking, 10 overhearers who had overheard Spanish regularly as children but had spoken Spanish minimally, and 27 late learners who had no regular experience with Spanish until high school were asked to repeat aloud 12 Spanish sentences presented in noise (+5 dB S/N level) and then repeat the same sentences presented without noise. Performance on sentences without noise was excellent across groups, with 92%–99% of the words repeated correctly. For sentences in noise, percentages of correctly repeated words differed across groups: 88% (native speakers), 68% (childhood speakers), 49% (overhearers), and 41% (late learners) [F(3,58)=22.417, p<0.001, with sentences-without-noise performance co-varied out]. Native speakers reliably outperformed all other groups; childhood speakers reliably outperformed late learners [by HSD, ps<0.01]; overhearers did not differ reliably from either childhood speakers or late learners. When the test was repeated two months later, childhood speakers performed comparably to native speakers. Results suggest that childhood speaking experience may benefit speech perception when that language is later re-learned in adulthood.