Posters

Investigating the effects of background noise on lexical perception in Japanese EFL learners: The role of acoustic feature variation

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Abstract

This study investigates how background noise in listening materials affects second language (L2) learners’ speech perception at the phoneme level, focusing on minimal-pair discrimination. While noise is inevitable in real-world communication, most materials use clean audio. To explore optimal noise conditions, an AX task was conducted. Thirty-three Japanese participants listened to 44 minimal pairs differing in vowels or consonants. Pairs were presented under eight experimental presentation configurations (e.g., clean–clean, clean–noisy). Participants judged whether the words were identical. Accuracy rates were analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects models and were lower for consonant pairs, especially when both words were noisy. Acoustically, F1 differences between words predicted higher accuracy, whereas F2 and peak frequency differences predicted lower accuracy, suggesting noise-induced misperception. These findings imply that indiscriminate noise may hinder L2 auditory processing. Listening materials can be designed to achieve an appropriate level of difficulty by considering how noise affects acoustic cues.

Keywords: Japanese EFL Learners, listening, noise, listening comprehension, speech perception

How to Cite:

Kanayama, R., & Ono, Y. (2026). Investigating the effects of background noise on lexical perception in Japanese EFL learners: The role of acoustic feature variation. In P. Trofimovich, A. Bodea, T.-N. N. Le, R. Suzuki, & C. Teló (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference (pp. 1–13). Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, October 2025. https://doi.org/10.31274/psllt.21304