Non-native speech recognition sentences: A new materials set for non-native speech perception research

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Speech Science

Background:

• Growing research in non-native (L2) English speech perception necessitates specialized experimental materials.
• Existing resources may not adequately cater to the specific needs of L2 English speakers at CEFR level B1 and above.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce and validate the Non-Native Speech Recognition (NNSR) sentence set.
• Provide researchers with a large-scale, controlled corpus for studying L2 English speech perception.
• Offer insights into the intelligibility of these materials for both L2 and native English speakers.

Main Methods:

• Development of 439 sentence triplets across semantic predictability conditions (predictable, neutral, anomalous).
• Construction involved combining sentence frames with congruent or anomalous keywords.
• Matching sentences on key factors to ensure consistency across conditions.

Main Results:

• Speech-in-noise intelligibility testing conducted with L2 and native English speakers.
• Data gathered on the performance of participants with the NNSR sentence set.
• Analysis of intelligibility scores across different sentence conditions and speaker groups.

Conclusions:

• The NNSR sentence set is a valuable, validated resource for L2 speech perception research.
• The materials demonstrate utility in experimental designs investigating L2 English processing.
• Further applications in diverse research paradigms are suggested.