Exploring the influence of bilingual experience on speech-in-competition measures

Abstract

Speech-in-Competition (SIC) tasks mimic real-world environments by including background noise and multi-speaker scenarios. However, few SIC tasks have been translated into Spanish and validated. Moreover, the influence of bilingual experience on SIC measures is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate how bilingual experience influences performance on speech-in-competition tasks conducted in Spanish versus English. We tested fifty-six Mexican undergraduate students whose native language was Spanish who self-rated English dominance on a 10-point scale (M = 5.8, SD = 2.3). Participants performed better on the Spanish version of a spatial release from masking compared to the English version but had similar performance in a digits-in-noise test. The relationship between performances and bilingual experience was tested by creating a linguistic profile based on five dimensions of the second language. Statistically significant medium-size correlations were found between performance and the linguistic dimensions of status, proficiency, and history, but not with demand of use, or stability. This indication that the influence of bilingual experience on SIC measures can be substantial suggests that SIC tasks may be inappropriate for individuals whose native language is not English. This also suggests that other linguistically diverse populations may need specialized SIC measures as well.