A NEW computer program to help Chinese students understand English accents has been developed by researchers at the University of Nottingham.

A team from the schools of psychology, education, and English, recognised that some Chinese students find it difficult to understand the range of different English accents spoken.

The team developed a computerised Spoken English Discrimination (SED) training program, which trains Chinese speakers how to detect differences in speech sounds.

Nicola Pitchford, from the School of Psychology, said the program has already received interest from Government organisations, and a major Chinese mobile phone company, who are interested in developing it into an app.

She added: "Our findings have shown that SED really does have a significant impact in enabling Asian students to differentiate between sounds."