Harte Jennifer, Frizelle Pauline, Gibbon Fiona
a Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences , University College Cork , Cork City, Ireland.
Clin Linguist Phon. 2018;32(8):689-705. doi: 10.1080/02699206.2017.1419379. Epub 2017 Dec 26.
There is substantial evidence that a speaker's accent, specifically an unfamiliar accent, can affect the listener's comprehension. In general, this effect holds true for both adults and children as well as those with typical and impaired language. Previous studies have investigated the effect of different accents on individuals with language disorders, but children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) have received little attention. The current study aims to learn more about the ability of children with SSD to process different speaker accents. Fifteen children with SSD aged between 4;01 and 5;11 years, and 16 typically developing children matched on language ability, age, socioeconomic status, gender and cognitive ability participated in the current study. A sentence comprehension task was carried out with each child, requiring them to follow instructions of increasing length spoken in three different accents - (i) a local Irish (Cork) accent, (ii) a regional North American accent and (iii) a non-native Indian English accent. Results showed no significant group difference and speaker accent did not significantly impact children's performance on the task. The results are discussed in relation to factors that influence accent comprehension, and their implications for children's underlying phonological representations.
有大量证据表明，说话者的口音，尤其是不熟悉的口音，会影响听众的理解。一般来说，这种影响在成人和儿童以及语言正常和受损的人群中都存在。以往的研究调查了不同口音对语言障碍个体的影响，但语音障碍（SSD）儿童很少受到关注。当前的研究旨在更深入了解患有SSD的儿童处理不同说话者口音的能力。15名年龄在4岁1个月至5岁11个月之间的SSD儿童，以及16名在语言能力、年龄、社会经济地位、性别和认知能力方面相匹配的发育正常儿童参与了当前的研究。对每个儿童进行了句子理解任务，要求他们听从用三种不同口音说出的长度递增的指令——（i）爱尔兰当地（科克）口音，（ii）北美地区口音，以及（iii）非母语的印度英语口音。结果显示，两组之间没有显著差异，说话者口音对儿童在任务中的表现也没有显著影响。将结合影响口音理解的因素及其对儿童潜在语音表征的影响来讨论这些结果。
