ABSTRACT
Purpose:
to investigate and compare hearing abilities in normal hearing bilingual students, at different levels of English proficiency (basic, intermediate and advanced), using behavioral testing and electrophysiological testing.
Methods:
this study is descriptive, quantitative and transversal. The sample consisted of 60 subjects (language schools students at different English proficiency levels: 20 at advanced level (AG); 20 at intermediate level (IG); 20 at basic level (BG)) with normal hearing and no complaints about auditory processing abilities, aged 18-35 years. They were subjected to behavioral test: Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT) that assesses ability of temporal resolution; and electrophysiological test Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potential (LLAEP) with verbal stimuli (syllables /ba/ - frequent stimulus and /di/ - rare stimulus) evaluating memory, attention and auditory discrimination.
Results:
it was noticed a statistically significant difference between ears for: BG, to amplitude of N1 and P2, with higher values for left ear; IG to amplitude of P1, N1 and P2, with higher values for left ear; AG to latency of N1, with higher values for left ear, and amplitudes of components P2, N2 and P3, with higher values for left ear. Between groups, RGDT showed lower values of AG, and latency of N1 component, with higher values for BG.
Conclusion:
there were significant differences in temporal resolution ability, better for students in advanced level of English and also to the latency of evoked cortical N1 with higher values for students at a basic level.
Keywords:
Hearing; Bilingualism; Electrophysiology; Event-Related Potentials, P300; Adult