Subjective speech intelligibility and soundscape perception of English, Polish, Arabic and Mandarin

This paper analyses perceived speech intelligibility and, more generally, soundscape perception associated to four different languages. The research was carried out using listening tests involving sixty native speakers of English, Polish, Arabic, and Mandarin (fifteen participants per language). In the tests, listeners were asked to subjectively evaluate three acoustic environments (an airport, a hospital, and a café) using eleven semantic attributes (intelligibility, speech level, speech pleasantness, noisiness, annoyance, relaxation, comfort, environmental pleasantness, eventfulness, excitement, and familiarity). The tests were undertaken for three room acoustic conditions defined by a different speech transmission index (STI) (STI=0.4, STI=0.5, and STI=0.6). Correlation analysis was carried out between the eleven semantic attributes, the four languages, the three room acoustic conditions, and the three environments, in view of developing an understanding of how the use of different languages might influence perceived speech intelligibility and, more generally, oral communication. Overall, the statistical analysis showed that the rating of semantic attributes is affected by languages, suggesting that these influence subjective speech intelligibility and, more generally, soundscape perception associated with oral communication. The perceptual variations associated to different languages should then be taken into consideration in the design of multi-lingual environments.