Summary
Background
This study investigated the effect of teachers' dysphonic voices on children's listening
comprehension.
Methods
One hundred thirty-four grade three and four students were recruited from local primary
schools in Hong Kong. They were required to listen to six passages, three in Cantonese
and three in English, which were either read in normal, mildly dysphonic, or severely
dysphonic voices. The students were required to complete six multiple-choice comprehension
questions upon listening to each passage. Comprehension performance across languages,
dysphonic severities, genders, and question types were examined.
Results
The results showed that listening comprehension was significantly poorer even when
speaker's voice quality was mildly impaired. Performance in Cantonese was generally
better than that in English but no significant difference in the pattern of decline
was found. Both boys and girls suffered to similar extent under dysphonic situations.
Differences in performance in various question types were discussed.
Conclusions
These findings support the urgent need to implement voice care education for the teaching
profession.
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: May 18, 2018
Accepted:
March 8,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
