Zhang Linjun, Li Yu, Wu Han, Li Xin, Shu Hua, Zhang Yang, Li Ping
Faculty of Linguistic Sciences and KIT-BLCU MEG Laboratory for Brain Science, Beijing Language and Culture University Beijing, China.
Department of Cognitive Science and ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Front Psychol. 2016 Jun 14;7:908. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00908. eCollection 2016.
Speech recognition by second language (L2) learners in optimal and suboptimal conditions has been examined extensively with English as the target language in most previous studies. This study extended existing experimental protocols (Wang et al., 2013) to investigate Mandarin speech recognition by Japanese learners of Mandarin at two different levels (elementary vs. intermediate) of proficiency. The overall results showed that in addition to L2 proficiency, semantic context, F0 contours, and listening condition all affected the recognition performance on the Mandarin sentences. However, the effects of semantic context and F0 contours on L2 speech recognition diverged to some extent. Specifically, there was significant modulation effect of listening condition on semantic context, indicating that L2 learners made use of semantic context less efficiently in the interfering background than in quiet. In contrast, no significant modulation effect of listening condition on F0 contours was found. Furthermore, there was significant interaction between semantic context and F0 contours, indicating that semantic context becomes more important for L2 speech recognition when F0 information is degraded. None of these effects were found to be modulated by L2 proficiency. The discrepancy in the effects of semantic context and F0 contours on L2 speech recognition in the interfering background might be related to differences in processing capacities required by the two types of information in adverse listening conditions.
在以往的大多数研究中，第二语言（L2）学习者在最佳和次优条件下的语音识别，主要以英语作为目标语言进行了广泛研究。本研究扩展了现有的实验方案（Wang等人，2013年），以调查不同汉语水平（初级与中级）的日语汉语学习者对汉语语音的识别情况。总体结果表明，除了L2水平外，语义语境、F0 轮廓和听力条件都会影响对汉语句子的识别表现。然而，语义语境和F0 轮廓对L2语音识别的影响在一定程度上有所不同。具体而言，听力条件对语义语境有显著的调节作用，这表明L2学习者在干扰背景下利用语义语境的效率低于安静环境。相比之下，未发现听力条件对F0 轮廓有显著的调节作用。此外，语义语境和F0 轮廓之间存在显著的交互作用，这表明当F0 信息退化时，语义语境对L2语音识别变得更加重要。未发现这些影响受L2水平的调节。在干扰背景下，语义语境和F0 轮廓对L2语音识别的影响差异，可能与不利听力条件下这两种信息所需的处理能力差异有关。
