Ann Bradlow
Northwestern University

Ann Bradlow

Northwestern University
United States

Bilingual speech intelligibility

Speech intelligibility – the accuracy with which a particular speech signal produced by a particular talker is understood by a particular listener in a particular communication setting – is notoriously difficult to predict.  Nevertheless, all else being equal, variation in intelligibility as assessed by word recognition accuracy is a common distinguishing feature of first-language (L1) versus second-language (L2) speech production and perception. Considering that many (perhaps most) conversations in the world today involve L2 participants, any account of speech intelligibility in real-world speech communication must address the role of the language backgrounds of the interlocutors.

This tutorial will review various strands of research that demonstrate a complex interplay between the language profiles of interlocutors and its impact on overall intelligibility.  In addition to providing a coherent perspective on prior research on bilingual speech intelligibility, this tutorial aims to provide a map for future research with the ultimate goal of modeling speech intelligibility by humans and machines in speech communication situations with various language profiles.  Throughout this tutorial, I will refer to current methodological and technical developments in corpus-based phonetics and interactive testing paradigms that open new windows on the dynamics of speech communication across a language barrier.