The segregation of target speech from competing speech when listening in a second language

Abstract

Introducing a perceived spatial separation (via the precedence effect) between target speech and competing speech reduces the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) required for the recognition of key target words by 3–7 dB in syntactically correct but semantically anomalous target sentences such a “A rose could paint a fish” (target words: rose, paint, fish). A recent study of monolingual Mandarin participants listening to anomalous sentences in Mandarin Chinese suggests that perceived spatial separation releases listeners from informational masking (IM) by facilitating access to the lexicon at the morphemic level, presumably by enhancing the segregation of the target speech from the competing speech background. This raises the interesting question as to whether perceived spatial separation facilitates lexical access in the same way for people listening in the second language (L2) as it does when listening in their first language (L1) since access to the L2 lexicon is likely to be less robust than access to the L1 lexicon. A second interesting question is the extent to which operating in a L2 environment affects release from IM when the competing speech is in L1. These issues will be addressed in L2 English listeners whose L1 is either Chinese or Korean.