Classroom noise and children learning in a second language

Abstract

The presence of background noise affects children more negatively than adults. Understanding speech in noise is a skill that continues to develop well into a child’s adolescent years. Childrens’ experience with a specific language also may affect their ability to make sense of incoming speech. Research suggests that even for adults the presence of background noise negatively affects the ability to listen in a second language. Two studies were conducted to investigate the effects of classroom noise on attention and speech perception in native Spanish-speaking second graders learning English as their second language (L2), as compared to English-only speaking peers (EO). In Study 1 we measured childrens’ on-task behavior during instructional activities with and without soundfield amplification. In Study 2 we measured the effects of noise (+10 dB signal-to-noise ratio) using an experimental English word-recognition task. Findings indicate although there were no effects of amplification on on-task behavior, word-recognition performance declined significantly for both EO and L2 groups in the noise condition. In particular, the impact of the noise was disproportionately greater for the L2 group. Children learning in their L2 appear to be at a distinct disadvantage when listening in rooms with typical noise and reverberation.