The Effects of Noise on English Vowel Perception by Chinese EFL Learners of Different Proficiency Levels

Daily communication usually occurs in various kinds of noise backgrounds. Noise interferes with the process of recognizing the target sounds, thus affecting the accuracy of speech perception. In the present study, three speech perception environments were set up: quiet, English babble noise and Chinese babble noise. 60 undergraduate English majors were selected as subjects and divided equally into a higher proficiency level group and a lower proficiency level group. By measuring and calculating their correct identification rates of twenty English vowels in three different listening conditions, the study investigated the effects of second language proficiency and noise type on Chinese English learners’ vowel perception. The results showed that learners at the higher level showed a significant advantage over those in the lower level group in identifying English vowels in both quiet and noisy environments, indicating a positive correlation between L2 proficiency and English vowel perception. In contrast, the results of the higher and lower level groups showed different trends in English and Chinese noise. The accuracy of the higher proficiency level group in English babble and Chinese babble are almost the same, while the lower proficiency level group performed significantly better in Chinese babble than in English babble. This suggests that both L2 proficiency and the types of noise have an effect on English vowel perception, and that there is an interactive effect between the two factors.