Speaker discrimination in a foreign language: first language environment, second language learners

Abstract

A witness to a crime may be required to identify a speaker based on voice samples from a language which is not their first language. Previous experimental work has shown that knowledge of a language has an effect on an individual's ability to identify speakers. This paper examines whether this ability increases over the course of the British four-year language degree. The results from a series of different open-test voice line-up presentations showed that listener ability improved on beginning to study a foreign language, yet showed no unambiguous improvement after the second semester of study.