The multilingual matrix test: Principles, applications, and comparison across languages: A review

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Speech intelligibility testing is crucial in multilingual societies.
• Existing methods may pose challenges in cross-linguistic assessments.
• The matrix sentence test offers a standardized approach.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the development, evaluation, and application of the matrix sentence test.
• To highlight its utility in multilingual speech intelligibility testing.
• To demonstrate its effectiveness even when the examiner is unfamiliar with the patient's language.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a closed-set format with syntactically fixed, semantically unpredictable sentences.
• Developed a 50-word vocabulary with 10 alternatives per sentence position.
• Reviewed construction, optimization, evaluation, and validation principles across 14 languages.
• Examined factors influencing test results, including talker, language, noise, training, and language proficiency.

Main Results:

• Optimization principles led to a steep intelligibility function and high homogeneity of speech materials.
• The test demonstrated high efficiency and excellent comparability across languages.
• Speaker characteristics were found to be the primary drivers of differences across languages.

Conclusions:

• The matrix test format is recommended for speech reception threshold assessment.
• It provides efficient, reliable, and comparable results across diverse linguistic groups.
• Its design facilitates repeated use with patients in their native language.