The Recognition Of Words Spoken In Isolation In a Foreign Language

Abstract

This article discusses some of the results of an experiment in which native speakers of English, Dutch advanced and intermediate learners of English listened to frequently occurring English words, which had been sliced into fragments of increasing duration. From the initial 100 ms. of a word onwards, each fragment contained the preceding fragment and an added 50 ms. of the word. The subjects were asked to write down the sounds they had heard and to identify the test words as soon as they had sufficient perceptual information about the words. Their responses show that the Dutch intermediate learners needed significantly more perceptual information before they were able to recognize a word than the advanced learners and the native speakers. This article discusses some of the results of an experiment in which native speakers of English, Dutch advanced and intermediate learners of English listened to frequently occurring English words, which had been sliced into fragments of increasing duration. From the initial 100 ms. of a word onwards, each fragment contained the preceding fragment and an added 50 ms. of the word. The subjects were asked to write down the sounds they had heard and to identify the test words as soon as they had sufficient perceptual information about the words. Their responses show that the Dutch intermediate learners needed significantly more perceptual information before they were able to recognize a word than the advanced learners and the native speakers.