Speech and Non-Speech Auditory Task Performance by Non-Native English Speakers.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Linguistics
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Assessing auditory perception in bilingual adults requires careful consideration of language background.
• Standardized auditory tests developed for native English speakers may not accurately reflect the abilities of non-native English speakers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate differences in auditory perception between native English speakers and Spanish-English bilingual adults.
• To determine the appropriateness of English-based auditory tests for bilingual Spanish-speaking adults.
• To explore the predictive value of speech-in-noise tasks in assessing auditory perception in bilinguals.

Main Methods:

• Compared performance on speech and non-speech auditory tests in native English speakers (n=50) and non-native English speakers (NNE; n=25) of Spanish first language.
• Administered English and Spanish versions of the Oldenburg Sentence test (OLSA) and other auditory tests.

Main Results:

• Native English speakers outperformed NNE on speech-based and pattern recognition tests.
• No significant differences were found on non-speech tests.
• A >2 SD difference in OLSA scores between English and Spanish predicted poorer performance on language-dependent auditory tests for NNE.

Conclusions:

• English-based auditory perception tests may be inappropriate for some Spanish-English bilingual adults due to linguistic factors.
• Screening speech-in-noise tests in both languages are recommended to determine test appropriateness.
• Auditory tests minimally impacted by linguistic differences should be considered for bilingual individuals with lower English screening scores.