Maj. Kimberly R. Scott, CCC-SLP
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
Alice M. Dyson, Ph.D., Committee Chair
In noisy, fast-paced situations, listeners have difficulty understanding speakers with foreign accents, especially when listeners cannot predict the meaning from other words in the sentence. This study examined the effects of noise levels and degrees of foreign accents on 50 listeners understanding of words in predictable and unpredictable sentences. Although noise and sentence predictability did affect understanding, the degree of foreign accent further compromised listener accuracy. As listening conditions became degraded by noise or unpredictability, listeners were less able to accommodate for the degree of accent.
In international airspace, communication breakdowns often occur because of accented speech and poor radio systems. The findings of this study have an implication for those who speak English as an international language in such situations or when English is the common language of two non-native speakers. These findings are also applicable to settings such as emergency rooms, telephone or radio communications, and classrooms.