Automatic speech recognition of non-native speakers using consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words

In this study we investigate whether non-native speakers using a speech recognition system would benefit from phone models of their own native language. For Dutch as the target recognition language, we found that American speakers do not in general benefit from American English models when speaking Dutch. However, using a CVC test methodology, we can conclude that for a certain level of proficiency, and for certain phones, there is a small beneficial effect of using American acoustic models for American non-native speakers of Dutch.