The noise level at which native and non‐native listeners could repeat about 50% of very simple English sentences was measured with an adaptive procedure. The 14 non‐native listeners were primarily native French speaking and were 19 to 53 years old. Four native listeners were 16 to 53 years old. On each trial the listener repeated one sentence presented at 70 dB SPL via loudspeakers in an anechoic chamber. If the entire sentence was correct, the noise level was increased; otherwise it was decreased. the step size was 5 dB until the first reversal and 2 dB thereafter. The speech reception threshold, SRT, was defined as the average noise level of ten trials following the first reversal. Three SRTs were measured for each listener. All listeners could repeat eight practice sentences presented in the quiet with 100% accuracy. The average SRTs were 57 dB SPL for listeners with minimal experience in English, 62 dB SPL for listeners with moderate experience, and 68 dB SPL for listeners with extensive experience. N...