Effect of Background Noise on PTE Listening Test Scores for Korean and Native English Listeners

Abstract

This study compares the effect that background noise has on the listening comprehension scores on the Pearson Test of English between first language (L1) English listeners and Korean, second language (L2) listeners of English. The extent to which L2 listeners are at a greater disadvantage when listening to more complex academic sentences in noise requires further investigation. A group of 16 Korean L2 listeners and a comparison group of 11 L1 English listeners were asked to repeat academic sentences in quiet, a small amount of noise and a greater amount of noise. L2 listeners obtained significantly poorer word recognition scores when listening in a larger amount of noise compared to when listening in the two other conditions. In addition, L2 listeners attained lower word recognition scores than native listeners across all three conditions.