Examining the relationship between lexical access and the perceived strength of foreign‐accents.

Abstract

Foreign‐accented speech is one source of variability that listeners may face during the perception of spoken language. Although a number of previous studies have examined the role that foreign‐accented speech plays in listeners’ ability to process spoken language, we are interested in examining the converse of this relationship. That is, previous work has demonstrated that accent manipulations affect listeners’ ability to process spoken language. For example, the speed and accuracy with which listeners access spoken words produced with a foreign‐accent is compromised (at least initially) relative to the same words produced with a native‐accent. However, the present study, which builds on our previous work [Shah and McLennan (2007)], examines whether manipulations known to affect listeners’ ability to access spoken words will affect listeners’ subjective judgment of foreign‐accented speech. More specifically, because spoken words are typically easier to process when they have been heard recently (repetition priming), we investigated whether listeners would respond more quickly in an accent‐rating task to primed words relative to unprimed words and/or whether primed words would be perceived as having been produced with a weaker foreign‐accent. Results provide new information regarding the relationship between lexical access and the perception of foreign‐accented speech.