Familiarity of Speaker Accent on Irish Children’s Performance on a Sentence Comprehension Task

Article type: Research Article

Authors: O’Connor, Claire^a | Gibbon, Fiona E.^{b; *}

Affiliations: [a] Enable Ireland, Cavan/Monaghan, Ireland | [b] University College Cork, Ireland

Correspondence: [*] Correspondence to: Fiona Gibbon, PhD, Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, Brookfeld Complex, University College Cork, College Road, Cork, Ireland. Tel.: +353 (0)21 4901570; Fax: +353 (0)21 4901542. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: Objective:This study sought to determine whether children’s performance on a sentence comprehension task is affected when sentences are spoken in an unfamiliar native accent. Method:Fifty typically developing school-aged children living in Southern Ireland (Cork) participated; 25 in a younger group (mean 7;08 years) and 25 in an older group (mean 9;09 years). The children completed a computer-based comprehension task during which 20 sentences were spoken in a Cork accent (familiar) and 20 in a Tyrone accent (unfamiliar). The sentences were matched for syllable length and syntactic complexity. Main results:The younger children made significantly more errors when sentences were spoken in an unfamiliar accent. The older children made a similar number of incorrect responses to both familiar and unfamiliar accents. Conclusion:Younger children’s performance on comprehension tasks may be reduced when sentences are spoken in an unfamiliar accent. Possible explanations and the clinical implications are discussed.

Keywords: accent, receptive language, sentence comprehension, children

DOI: 10.3233/ACS-2011-18104

Journal: Journal of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 1-17, 2011