Linguistic properties of non-native speech

As speech recognition systems improve in quality, they become attractive as components in applications which will be used by non-native speakers, both applications designed specifically for language learners and those intended for general use. Recognizer performance on speakers who are not fluent in the language they are speaking, however, is often poor. A number of factors contribute to recognition failure for non-native speakers; pronunciation, lexical choice, and syntactic structure are a few of the elements of speech that set native and non-native speakers apart. In this paper we examine the character of non-native speech, both spontaneous and read, describing how features that are known to be important in recognition system development compare with those of native speakers