Influences of visual speech information on the perception of foreign-accented speech in noise

This study examined the extent to which visual speech assisted native Australian English speakers to perceive Japanese-accented English compared with Australian English spoken sentences presented in speech-shaped noise (SNR:-4dB). Twenty-one native Australian English listeners performed a speech perception in noise task with Japanese-accented and Australian English sentences in two conditions: an Audio-only condition (AO) and an Audio-visual condition (AV) where the talker's face was also shown. The results showed that the addition of visual speech information facilitated the speech perception for both Australian English and Japanese-accented English. However, the visual benefit was significantly smaller in the perception of Japanese-accented English, indicating that foreign-accented speech affects the visual speech benefit potentially due to non-native visual form and timing differences.