Examining the difference in error detection when listening to native and non-native speakers

Abstract

As communication with non-native speakers becomes increasingly common, it is important to understand how foreign-accented speech might influence language processing. Non-native speech can require the listener to process errors, such as grammatical violations or unexpected word choices. The present study examines how listeners process different types of errors across native and non-native speakers. Using a self-paced listening task measuring reaction times to target words, 30 participants listened to sentences that contained either no-error, a grammatical error (e.g., “Do you wanting anything?”), or a contextual formal/informal word-choice error (e.g., “Do you require anything?” in an informal context). Participants responded more slowly while processing grammatical and word-choice errors compared with control sentences, especially when listening to non-native speech. This suggests that errors spoken by non-native speakers take longer to process, both in the case of grammatical errors and when contextually inappropriate words are used.