Older adults and tuning in to foreign accented English

Australia has become a multi-cultural society. Communication with people who speak with a foreign accent, for example health care providers, occur frequently in our daily lives.

On first encounter, it is sometimes difficult to understand foreign-accented talkers, however, with more exposure, people can ‘tune in’ to the foreign-accented talker’s pronunciations.

Our research examines whether older adults maintain this ability to perceptually adapt or ‘tune in’ to foreign-accented speech.