Listener perceptions of foreignness, precision, and accent attribution in a case of foreign accent syndrome

Purpose: This paper will examine how listeners perceive foreignness, precision, and speaker origin in the speech of a speaker with neurogenic foreign accent syndrome, as compared to an unimpaired native speaker, an unimpaired foreign speaker, and a native speaker with ataxic dysarthria. Method: Listeners with and without experience in speech-language pathology rated degree of foreignness and precision of speech sounds of a speaker with neurogenic foreign accent syndrome as compared to (a) an unimpaired native speaker, (b) an unimpaired foreign speaker, and (c) a native speaker with ataxic dysarthria. Listeners also attributed national origin to each speaker and rated confidence in all their attributions and ratings. Results: Listeners rated a native speaker with foreign accent syndrome as less foreign than a true foreign speaker. They agreed less and were less accurate when attributing national origin to a speaker with foreign accent syndrome and were less confident in their attributions and ratings. Unexpectedly, listeners were equally as unsure when attributing origin to a native speaker with ataxic dysarthria as they were when attributing origin to a native speaker with foreign accent syndrome. Conclusions: While previous literature has characterized foreign accent syndrome as perceptually unique in comparison to true foreign accents and other motor speech disorders, our results suggest that listeners do not universally discern a clear difference between foreign accent syndrome speech and other disordered speech. This may suggest that foreign accent syndrome is not a discrete diagnosis. If it is a discrete diagnosis, these results rebut the idea that foreign accent syndrome is the only motor speech disorder in which the speaker is perceived as foreign.