Language and Communication, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
Disabil Rehabil. 2012;34(12):1024-9. doi: 10.3109/09638288.2011.631680. Epub 2012 Feb 24.
This study explored whether an unfamiliar non-native accent, differing in both segmental and prosodic features was more difficult for individuals with aphasia to understand than an unfamiliar native accent, which differed in segmental features only.
Comprehension, which was determined by accuracy judgments on true/false sentences, and speed of response were assessed in the following three conditions: a familiar Southern Standard British English (SSBE) accent, an unfamiliar native Grimsby accent, and an unfamiliar non-native Chinese accent. Thirty-four English speaking adults (17 people with and 17 people without aphasia) served as listeners for this study.
All listeners made significantly more errors in the unfamiliar non-native accent, although this difficulty was more marked for those with aphasia. While there was no affect of speaker accent on the response times of listeners with aphasia, listeners without aphasia were significantly slower with the unfamiliar non-native accent.
The results indicate that non-native accented speech affects comprehension even on simple tasks in ideal listening conditions. The findings suggest that speaker accent, especially accents varying in both segmental and prosodic features, can be a barrier to successful interactions between non-native accented speakers and native listeners, particularly those with aphasia.
本研究旨在探讨与仅在音段特征上不同的陌生母语口音相比，在音段和韵律特征上均不同的陌生非母语口音是否更难为失语症患者所理解。
通过对真/假句的准确性判断来评估理解能力，以及反应速度，在以下三种条件下进行评估：熟悉的南方标准英语口音（SSBE）、陌生的本地格里姆斯比口音和陌生的非本地中文口音。本研究有 34 名讲英语的成年人（17 名失语症患者和 17 名非失语症患者）作为听众。
尽管对于失语症患者来说，这种困难更为明显，但所有听众在不熟悉的非母语口音中都犯了明显更多的错误。虽然说话者口音对失语症患者的反应时间没有影响，但没有失语症的听众在不熟悉的非母语口音中明显较慢。
结果表明，即使在理想的听力条件下，非母语口音也会影响理解，即使是在简单的任务上。这些发现表明，说话者口音，尤其是在音段和韵律特征上均不同的口音，可能成为非母语口音说话者和母语听众之间成功互动的障碍，尤其是对于那些有失语症的人。
