Methods and models for quantative assessment of speech intelligibility in cross-language communication

To deal with the effects of nonnative speech communication on speech intelligibility, one must know the magnitude of these effects. To measure this magnitude, suitable test methods must be available. Many of the methods used in cross-language speech communication research are not very suitable for this, since these methods are designed to investigate specific effects regarding speech perception and production, rather than quantifying overall intelligibility. In this paper, a simple model of cross-language speech intelligibility is shown that helps in selecting experimental methods to assess speech intelligibility. Based on this model, and practical observations regarding assessment of crosslanguage speech intelligibility, a multi-lingual version of the Speech Reception Threshold method was implemented as a suitable method for the quantification of cross-language speech intelligibility. The performance of this method is illustrated by means of experimental results.

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