Impact of face masks on second language word identification

Abstract

The current study investigated the effects of face masks on the intelligibility of second language (L2) speech. Specifically, we examined whether L2 learners of Mandarin and English identify words in their L2s less accurately when the speakers spoke through masks. Seven Mandarin native speakers whose L2 is English and seven English native speakers whose L2 is Mandarin were asked to identify the words they heard in videos, where English and Mandarin native speakers pronounced monosyllabic words in their native languages with and without surgical masks. The first languages (L1s) of these 14 subjects, the language of the videos, the mask conditions (with mask versus without mask), the noise conditions (quiet versus noisy), and the speaker gender (male versus female) were included in the experimental design. Preliminary results suggested that L2 word identification was significantly impacted when the background noise was present. Furthermore, the accuracy of L2 word identification in the male-speaker condition was significantly lower than the female-speaker condition when masks were worn. These findings were compared to the L1 perception data to demonstrate how the use of masks may negatively impact L2 perception to a greater degree than L1 perception.