Background noise makes listening effortful and may lead to fatigue. This may compromise classroom learning, especially for children with a non-native background. In the current study, we used pupillometry to investigate listening effort and fatigue during listening comprehension under typical (0 dB signal-to-noise ratio [SNR]) and favorable (+10 dB SNR) listening conditions in 63 Swedish primary school children (7–9 years of age) performing a narrative speech–picture verification task. Our sample comprised both native (n = 25) and non-native (n = 38) speakers of Swedish. Results revealed greater pupil dilation, indicating more listening effort, in the typical listening condition compared with the favorable listening condition, and it was primarily the non-native speakers who contributed to this effect (and who also had lower performance accuracy than the native speakers). Furthermore, the native speakers had greater pupil dilation during successful trials, whereas the non-native speakers showed greatest pupil dilation during unsuccessful trials, especially in the typical listening condition. This set of results indicates that whereas native speakers can apply listening effort to good effect, non-native speakers may have reached their effort ceiling, resulting in poorer listening comprehension. Finally, we found that baseline pupil size decreased over trials, which potentially indicates more listening-related fatigue, and this effect was greater in the typical listening condition compared with the favorable listening condition. Collectively, these results provide novel insight into the underlying dynamics of listening effort, fatigue, and listening comprehension in typical classroom conditions compared with favorable classroom conditions, and they demonstrate for the first time how sensitive this interplay is to language experience.

背景噪音使聆听费力，并可能导致疲劳。这可能会影响课堂学习，尤其是对于非母语背景的儿童。在当前的研究中，我们使用瞳孔测量法调查了 63 名瑞典小学生 (7 –9 岁）执行叙述性语音-图片验证任务。我们的样本包括本地 ( n = 25) 和非本地 ( n= 38) 讲瑞典语的人。结果显示，在典型的听力条件下，与良好的听力条件相比，瞳孔扩大程度更大，表明听力更加努力，并且主要是非母语人士造成了这种影响（并且表现准确度也低于母语人士） . 此外，母语人士在成功的试验中瞳孔扩张更大，而非母语人士在不成功的试验中瞳孔扩张最大，尤其是在典型的听力条件下。这组结果表明，虽然母语者可以将听力努力应用到良好的效果，但非母语者可能已经达到了他们的努力上限，导致听力理解较差。最后，我们发现基线瞳孔大小随着试验而减少，这可能表明更多与听力相关的疲劳，与良好的听力条件相比，在典型的听力条件下这种影响更大。总的来说，这些结果为典型课堂条件下与良好课堂条件相比的听力努力、疲劳和听力理解的潜在动态提供了新颖的见解，并且他们首次证明了这种相互作用对语言体验的敏感程度。