Effect of Perceptual Training with Noise on Chinese Learners' English Consonant Reception Thresholds

A group of native Chinese speakers underwent intensive perceptual training to identify English intervocalic consonants, with noise presented during the training procedure. Learners' Consonant Reception Thresholds (CRT) were measured before and after training, and their consonant identifications in quiet were also measured. The results showed that, after training, learners' overall CRT decreased significantly, and their consonant identification accuracy increased significantly. A significant negative correlation between individual consonant's CRT decrease and identification improvement was also found. These results indicated the general effectiveness of the training, and that CRT can be a useful metric in quantifying the abilities of non-native sound perception in noise.