Previous studies have shown that native language backgrounds of both talkers and listeners affect speech intelligibility. This study investigated the interlanguage speech intelligibility benefit (ISIB) that is also known as the advantage in understanding second language (L2) speech that non-native listeners have over native listeners when both groups listen to speakers with the same first language (L1). More specifically, it looked into the ISIB in relation to the Arabic language spoken by both native Arabic (NA) and English speakers. To this end, 15 NA and 15 native English (NE) subjects listened to Arabic produced by two groups of talkers (5 NA talkers and 5 NE talkers) and were asked to identify the words they heard. Results showed evidence for the interlanguage speech intelligibility for listeners (i.e. NE listeners were more accurate than NA listeners at identifying English-accented Arabic speech). However, no evidence for the ISIB for talkers was found. That is, NE listeners did not find English-accented speech more intelligible than NA speech. By examining L2 learners’ recognition of L2 consonant contrasts, the study contributes to the body of knowledge on L2 sound acquisition as well as the ISIB literature. It also provides some insight into the problem of adult L2 learners’ ability to learn novel L2 consonants.

中文翻译：

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阿拉伯语语音清晰度：母语者和非母语者对阿拉伯语口语的看法

先前的研究表明，说话者和听众的母语背景都会影响语音清晰度。这项研究调查了中介语语音清晰度优势 (ISIB)，也称为非母语听众相对于母语听众在理解第二语言 (L2) 语音方面的优势，当两组人听相同第一语言 (L1) 的说话者时。更具体地说，它研究了 ISIB 与阿拉伯语母语 (NA) 和英语使用者所使用的阿拉伯语的关系。为此，15 名 NA 和 15 名母语为英语 (NE) 的受试者聆听了两组说话者（5 名 NA 说话者和 5 名 NE 说话者）制作的阿拉伯语，并被要求识别他们听到的单词。结果显示了听众的中间语言语音清晰度的证据（即，在识别英语口音的阿拉伯语语音方面，NE 听众比 NA 听众更准确）。然而，没有发现说话者的 ISIB 证据。也就是说，NE 听众并不认为英语口音的语音比 NA 语音更容易理解。通过检查 L2 学习者对 L2 辅音对比的识别，该研究有助于丰富 L2 声音习得知识体系以及 ISIB 文献。它还对成人二语学习者学习新二语辅音的能力问题提供了一些见解。