When faced with intelligibility problems, listeners resort to contextual information. The present study explores the use of lexical context by listeners when identifying segments with various degrees of foreign accent. Native English listeners identified words into which a single Spanish-accented segment from a 5-step continuum had been inserted. Listeners also identified vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel sequences containing the same accented segments. While lexical context helped, the lexical advantage was largely independent of degree of foreign accent, with a slight benefit only for the most accented consonants. To examine the influence of listeners’ first language on the usefulness of lexical context, a second experiment was carried out with Spanish, Japanese and Czech non-native listeners. As was the case for native listeners, there was little evidence that a lexical context helps more for foreign-accented than native segments. Normalised for word familiarity, overall non-native identification patterns were comparable to native listeners’ perceptions. Listeners’ first language phonetic inventory had an effect on identification levels, particularly in the case of vowels. Lexical context benefits for vowel identification can be explained by their generally less categorical processing, their realisational variability in English, and symbol mapping issues.

中文翻译：

---

词汇上下文和语言经验在外语口音片段感知中的作用

当面临清晰度问题时，听众会求助于上下文信息。本研究探讨了听众在识别具有不同程度的外国口音的片段时如何使用词汇上下文。英语母语听众识别出插入了 5 步连续体中的单个西班牙口音片段的单词。听众还识别出包含相同重音片段的元音-辅音或辅音-元音序列。虽然词汇上下文有所帮助，但词汇优势在很大程度上与外国口音的程度无关，仅对重音最重的辅音有轻微的好处。为了检验听众的第一语言对词汇上下文有用性的影响，我们对西班牙语、日语和捷克语非母语听众进行了第二次实验。就像母语听众的情况一样，几乎没有证据表明词汇上下文对外国口音比母语片段更有帮助。根据单词熟悉程度进行归一化后，非母语人士的整体识别模式与母语听众的感知相当。听众的第一语言语音清单对识别水平有影响，特别是在元音的情况下。词汇上下文对于元音识别的好处可以通过它们通常较少的分类处理、它们在英语中的实现可变性以及符号映射问题来解释。特别是在元音的情况下。词汇上下文对于元音识别的好处可以通过它们通常较少的分类处理、它们在英语中的实现可变性以及符号映射问题来解释。特别是在元音的情况下。词汇上下文对于元音识别的好处可以通过它们通常较少的分类处理、它们在英语中的实现可变性以及符号映射问题来解释。