Perception of an existing and non-existing L2 English phoneme behind noise by Japanese native speakers

This study investigates how similarly a person hears an existing and non-existing speech sound behind noise in L2, as compared to L1 reported in Mattys, Barkan, and Samuel (2014). Participants were Japanese native speakers who spoke English as a second language. They listened to English words and non-words in which a phoneme was covered by noise (added) or replaced by noise (replaced). The target phoneme was either a liquid or a nasal. In experiment, participants listened to a pair of a word with noise (added or replaced) and a word without noise (normal) in a row, and evaluated the similarity of the two by using an 8-point scale. The results suggested that L2 listeners perceived the added and replaced sound significantly differently. L2 listeners found the added sound (a phoneme + noise) more similar to a normal sound than the replaced sound (noise only), as was also reported in L1 listeners. At the same time, they also perceived the illusory sound of a missing phoneme in the replaced condition. A missing nasal was significantly more restored than a missing liquid. There was no lexical effect in perceptual restoration of phonemes among L2 listeners, although it was reported among L1 listeners.