The accurate perception of spoken English is influenced by many variables, including the listener's native language, reverberation, and background noise. Few studies of speech perception by bilingual listeners have carefully controlled for second language proficiency and even fewer have presented speech in everyday listening environments that contain noise and reverberation. In the present study, detailed language background, language proficiency information, and individual language samples were collected and the speech stimuli were presented in a variety of quiet, noisy, and reverberant listening environments. The effects of noise and reverberation on the perception of American English monosyllabic words was examined for two groups of young listeners with normal hearing: 1) monolingual American English speakers and 2) Spanish-English bilinguals who acquired both languages prior to age 6 years, exhibited similar spoken proficiency in both languages, and spoke English without a noticeable accent. An innovative test of virtual speech perception was used to assess word recognition in two listening environments typical of everyday communication: a simulated noisy anechoic environment and a simulated noisy reverberant environment. Word recognition was also measured in quiet and in an unprocessed noisy environment. For each noisy listening environment (unprocessed, anechoic, reverberant), three signal-to-noise ratios were employed. Results indicate that early bilingualism negatively affects perception of words presented in noisy listening environments. Significantly poorer word recognition was observed for the bilingual listeners than for the monolingual listeners in all three noisy environments and at all noise levels. Both groups exhibited similar word recognition in quiet. The results were surprising considering the high level of spoken language proficiency exhibited by all bilingual listeners. It is often assumed that highly proficient Spanish-English speakers are equally proficient at understanding English; however, these data indicate that the speech understanding of this group may be overestimated in natural listening situations.

<div>This dissertation investigates three utterance fluency features and two vocabulary features of 409 speech samples from advanced intermediate and advanced L2 English speakers, who participated in the Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT) between the year of 2009 and 2015. Among the 409 L2 English speakers, there are 80 L1 Hindi speakers rated as advanced intermediate, 32 L1 Hindi speakers rated as advanced, 286 L1 Mandarin speakers rated as advanced intermediate, and 11 L1 Mandarin speakers rated as advanced.</div><div><br></div><div>Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) was conducted and presented four different clusters among all the L2 English speakers. The four different clusters are: (1) Low Mean Syllables per Run (MSR), low Speech Rate (SR), very high Pause Rate (PR), medium Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), and medium percentage of words on the Academic Word List (AWL); (2) Medium Mean Syllables per Run (MSR), medium Speech Rate (SR), high Pause Rate (PR), low Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), and low percentage of words on the Academic Word List (AWL); (3) High Mean Syllables per Run (MSR), high Speech Rate (SR), low Pause Rate (PR), medium Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity (MTLD), and medium percentage of words on the Academic Word List (AWL); (4) Medium Mean Syllables per Run (MSR), medium Speech Rate (SR), low Pause Rate (PR), very high Measure of Textual Lexical Diversity, and very high percentage level of words on the Academic Word List (AWL).</div><div>Chi-square results show that L2 English speakers’ cluster membership is strongly associated with both their L1 background and level of L2 oral English proficiency. While most of the advanced intermediate L1 Mandarin speakers are in Cluster 1 and Cluster 2, the majority of the advanced intermediate L1 Hindi speakers concentrate in Cluster 3. A large number of advanced L1 Mandarin speakers and L1 Hindi speakers are also located in Cluster 3.</div><div><br></div><div>Twelve raters were invited to evaluate speech samples representative of the four clusters in terms of accent difference and listener effort. Twelve speakers were selected from the four clusters, whose speech samples have values of the five linguistic features closest to the cluster mean.</div><div><br></div><div>Multi-facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) results show that L1 Mandarin speakers generally received lower ratings in accent difference and listener effort. The connection among fluency, vocabulary, and accentedness/listener effort, however, functions differently for L1 Mandarin speakers and L1 Hindi speakers. For advanced intermediate L1 Mandarin speakers, those who speak slower and use more diverse vocabulary and more academic words were evaluated to be less accented, meanwhile costing less listener effort. However, advanced intermediate L1 Hindi speakers were rated as less accented and cost less listener effort when they demonstrate higher fluency measures and lower vocabulary measures.</div><div><br></div><div>Advanced L2 English speakers, in contrary, received reverse rating results. The advanced L1 Mandarin speaker, who speaks faster and uses less diverse vocabulary and fewer academic words, was evaluated to be less accented and cost less listener effort. However, the advanced L1 Hindi speaker, who speaks slower and uses more diverse vocabulary and more academic words, was rated as less accented and cost less listener effort.</div><div><br></div><div>This dissertation reemphasizes that holistic rating rubric does not deny the existence of multiple linguistic profiles. Raters are sensitive to different combinations of fluency and vocabulary features even if they have been asked to use a holistic scale. In addition, L2 English speakers may adopt individual strategies to accommodate while delivering, which calls for further pedagogical attention.<br></div><div><br></div>

Professional research project (Au.D.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 37 pages. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: The accurate perception of spoken English is influenced by many variables, including the listener's native language, reverberation, and background noise. Few studies of speech perception by bilingual listeners have carefully controlled for second language proficiency and even fewer have presented speech in everyday listening environments that contain noise and reverberation. In the present study, detailed language background, language proficiency information, and individual language samples were collected and the speech stimuli were presented in a variety of quiet, noisy, and reverberant listening environments. / ABSTRACT: The effects of noise and reverberation on the perception of American English monosyllabic words was examined for two groups of young listeners with normal hearing: 1) monolingual American English speakers and 2) Spanish-English bilinguals who acquired both languages prior to age 6 years, exhibited similar spoken proficiency in both languages, and spoke English without a noticeable accent. An innovative test of virtual speech perception was used to assess word recognition in two listening environments typical of everyday communication: a simulated noisy anechoic environment and a simulated noisy reverberant environment. Word recognition was also measured in quiet and in an unprocessed noisy environment. For each noisy listening environment (unprocessed, anechoic, reverberant), three signal-to-noise ratios were employed. Results indicate that early bilingualism negatively affects perception of words presented in noisy listening environments. / ABSTRACT: Significantly poorer word recognition was observed for the bilingual listeners than for the monolingual listeners in all three noisy environments and at all noise levels. Both groups exhibited similar word recognition in quiet. The results were surprising considering the high level of spoken language proficiency exhibited by all bilingual listeners. It is often assumed that highly proficient Spanish-English speakers are equally proficient at understanding English; however, these data indicate that the speech understanding of this group may be overestimated in natural listening situations. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Emendatio vitae was the most widely copied of all Richard Rolle’s writings in fourteenth and fifteenth-century England, and yet in modern scholarship this important work and its early audience have received comparatively little scholarly attention. My aim has been to address this lacuna by producing an edition of one of the seven Middle English translations of the text - Amendinge of Lyf - with notes and glossary. In an introductory study I adopt a dual focus: Rolle’s intended audience, and the actual early readers of this particular Middle English translation. Firstly, I conclude that Rolle may have intended Emendatio vitae as a work of ‘pastoralia’, for secular priests, and therefore with a wider audience of the laity also in mind. This being the case, it demonstrates that the adaptation of traditionally eremitic contemplative writings for a general audience, so widespread in the fifteenth-century, was already stirring in Rolle’s day. Secondly, I look in detail at a specific crosssection of Rolle’s early readership: a translator, several scribes and correctors, and other early readers and owners. The striking thing about this segment of the text’s reception is its breadth, including a priest, a number of prominent lay women and men, and by the end of the fifteenth-century also Dominican and Benedictine nuns.