Some training procedures applicable to teaching the sound systems and vocabularies of foreign languages.

A student's proficiency in a language is usually assessed by measuring his competence in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing. Foreign language training programs differ in the emphases placed on the development of each of these four basic language skills. Some of these differences are directly related to the specific needs of particular student populations while others are related to the method of instruction the teacher has adopted. [...

Short-term adaptation to accented English by younger and older adults

This study examined the effects of age and hearing loss on short-term adaptation to accented speech. Data from younger and older listeners in a prior investigation [Gordon-Salant et al. (2010). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128, 444–455] were re-analyzed to examine changes in recognition over four administrations of equivalent lists of English stimuli recorded by native speakers of Spanish and English. Results showed improvement in recognition scores over four list administrations for the accented stimuli but not for the native English stimuli. Group effects emerged but were not involved in any interactions, suggesting that short-term adaptation to accented speech is preserved with aging and with hearing loss