The effect of accent salience on generalization of perceptual adaptation

Abstract

Listeners often have difficulty understanding non-native accented speech. However, they are able to quickly adapt to non-native accented speech and generalize this adaptation to novel talkers. Previous studies that examined the mechanisms underlying generalization of adaptation mostly focused on acoustic similarity. That is, prior studies have demonstrated that acoustic similarity between non-native talkers in training and testing facilitates generalization. While acoustic similarity facilitates generalization, it is possible that salience of an accent (i.e., how noticeable the non-native accent is to a listener) also plays a significant role in generalization. That is, even if non-native accented talkers are acoustically similar to each other, generalization might not occur if a talker's non-native accent is not sufficiently distinct from the native-accented speech the listeners are familiar with. Thus, this study aims to examine the roles of salience of a non-native accent in generalization of perceptual adaptation to novel talkers. In the present study, native English speakers listen and transcribe English sentences read by Korean learners of English. Intelligibility (i.e., number of words transcribed) is measured to examine whether generalization to a novel non-native accented talker occurred. The results of the study will inform our understanding of generalization of adaptation to non-native accented talkers.