BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to compare speech audiometry test results of the conventional Hahm's list with those of Korean standard word lists for adults (KS-WL-A) using both live voice and compact disc (CD) speech presentation modes. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Eighty patients with sensorineural hearing loss and 23 control subjects with normal hearing participated in the study. Each hearing loss group comprised 20 subjects (mild, moderate, moderately severe, and severe hearing loss groups). Speech audiometry was performed to measure the speech recognition threshold (SRT) and word recognition score. KS-WL-A was presented either through a live voice mode or recorded CD materials. Test words from Hahm's list were presented using the live voice mode only. Pure tone audiometry was also conducted for all subjects. RESULTS: Differences between the SRT and pure tone average were within 6 dB in all subgroups in all three stimulation methods, indicating high reliability of the SRT in both the conventional and Korean standard methods. The moderate, moderately severe, and severe hearing loss groups showed lower word recognition scores in the CD mode with KS-WL-A than with the two live voice modes. CONCLUSION: Both the live voice mode and CD mode showed reliable speech audiometry test results in normal and hearing-impaired subjects. Although the CD mode is recommended to standardize test methods and reduce test errors, the live voice mode might be more effective for patients with moderate to severe hearing loss.
Adult* ; Audiometry ; Audiometry, Speech* ; Compact Disks ; Hearing Loss ; Hearing Loss, Sensorineural ; Hearing* ; Humans ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Voice

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There can be 3, 192 syllables in Korean language but the frequencies of each syllables are variable. This study was aimed to investigate the frequencies of each Korean syllable in the everyday dialogue and to compare the result with the existing Korean phonetically balanced (PB) word list, which can provide the basic data for the standardization of Korean PB word list. MATERIALS AND METHOD: Using 33 materials (total 537, 245 syllables) collected from TV drama (MBC Best Theater), the author calculated the frequencies of each Korean syllables composed of initial consonant and vowel and compared with existing PB word list by computer program. RESULTS: Each syllable appeared in the different frequency pattern. The 138 of 399 syllables represented the 95% of everyday dialogue. CONCLUSION: This study showed that established PB word list was made relatively well but needs somewhat modification to reflect the actual frequencies of syllable in colloquialism.
Audiometry, Speech ; Drama ; Speech Discrimination Tests

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Korean phonetically balanced (PB) word list (Ham's Korean PB Word List) is currently the most commonly used word list for speech discrimination test. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list and to compare frequency characteristics of the Ham's Korean PB word list with that of the 21st Century Sejong words, which represent characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: The 300 syllables most commonly used were collected from the words in 21st Century Sejong project. The 21st Century Sejong words were weighted according to the frequency of usage. The 21st Century Sejong words and words from the Ham's Korean PB word list were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: Syllables with frequencies above 2,000 Hz comprise 34% of the 21st Century Sejong words and 16% of the Ham's Korean PB word list. The Ham's Korean PB word list does not represent the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language. The 21st Century Sejong words have more 'eu', 'i' and open syllables than the Ham's Korean PB word list. CONCLUSION: The Ham's Korean PB word list does not reflect the high frequency characteristics of the contemporary spoken Korean language included in the 21st Century Sejong words. Therefore, a new PB word list that incorporates a greater number of syllables with high frequency characteristics is required.
Acoustics* ; Audiometry, Speech ; Speech Acoustics ; Speech Discrimination Tests

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Speech audiometry is a useful test for obtaining practical information which could not be gotten from the pure-tone audiometer test. Nowadays, Hahm's Korean disyllabic word lists are the most commonly used word lists for the speech reception threshold test in Korea. The disyllabic word lists should be composed of spondaic words (equally stressed words). The aim of this study is to evaluate the characteristic frequency of Hahm's disyllabic word lists. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Two of the Hahm's disyllabic word lists were evaluated. The word lists were analyzed using an acoustic analysis program that has the MATLAB function. RESULTS: The percentage of disyllabic words in the Hahm's disyllabic word lists that had the spondaic words pattern were 33%. The characteristic frequencies of these words were equally stressed above 1,000 Hz. Other disyllabic words showed an unequally stressed pattern. The percentage of words that had the first syllable stressed pattern was 31% and the percentage of second syllable stressed pattern was 36%. CONCLUSION: Some words, which are commonly used in the Hahm's disyllabic words lists, had an unequally stressed pattern. A new Korean dissyllabic word list needs to use more balanced words that have the characteristic frequency of each word.
Acoustics ; Audiometry, Speech ; Korea ; Speech Reception Threshold Test

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Although several Korean PB (phonetically balanced) word lists were proposed by many investigators, there is not yet a standard PB word list established in Korea. This study aims to study the actual condition of Korean PB word lists, to investigate the frequencies of Korean phonemes and to delineate the commonly used monosyllabic words among them. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The study materials were collected from 80 training hospitals in Korea. The frequencies of the initial consonants, vowels and final consonants in the collected lists were calculated with a computer program. Common monosyllabic words were summarized in a table according to their incidences in the lists. RESULTS: Thirteen lists were used in 80 training hospitals. Hahm's list was most commonly used. Most lists showed a similar trend in the phoneme frequencies. The most common monosyllabic words were /gang/, /nun/, and /don/. CONCLUSION: These results might be valuable information for the production of a new standard Korean PB word list.
Audiometry, Speech ; Humans ; Incidence ; Korea* ; Research Personnel ; Speech Discrimination Tests

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Young children response more readily to speech than to pure tone stimuli. Although there are several reports on modification of speech Reception Threshold Testing by picture identification in the States, none has been reported in Korea. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we investigated the testing of SRT-PI in 102 young children of normal development between 24 and 36 months. All subjects were tested not only with SRT-PI but also with play audiometry in the same condition. RESULTS: Overall success rate of SRT-PI was 80.3% while only 3.9% of subjects were successful in play audiometry. The success rate of SRT-PI was significantly higher in the 29-36 months group than in the 24-28 months group. Test time and threshold did not show significant differences between in sex and age of subjects with regard to SRT-PI. CONCLUSION: SRT-PI is a simple, efficient and very useful test battery for audiologic evaluation in young children.
Audiometry ; Child* ; Humans ; Korea ; Speech Reception Threshold Test

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the frequencies of phonemes in the colloquial Korean language and compared them with those of the Korean spondee word list (KSWL). MATERIALS AND METHOD: One hundred fifty nine scripts (2, 312, 651 syllables) from several television dramas and news in Korean were selected as study materials. A computer program was developed and used to estimate the frequencies of phonemes from the pronunciated notation of the materials and KSWL. RESULTS: All materials except KSWL showed similar trends in the frequency of phonemes. The vowel distribution of KSWL mostly corresponded with the colloquial language. More (86.1% vs. 35.8%) final consonant phonemes were present in KSWL than in the colloquial Korean. The most prominent discrepancy existed in the initial consonant phonemes which had excessive post-obstruent tensing. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study recommend that KSWL needs to be modified in order to have more similar frequencies of phonemes with the actual frequencies of the colloquial Korean language.
Audiometry, Speech ; Drama ; Phonetics ; Speech Reception Threshold Test ; Television ; Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation*

OBJECTIVETo develop a set of Mandarin monosyllabic list for the goal to use as a standardized speech recognition assessment tool in China with sufficient validity, reliability and sensitivity.

METHODSThirty lists were designed based on the following criteria: efficiency, phonemic-balance, familiarity and coverage, while each list was designed corresponding to 25 monosyllables. These lists were read by a male broadcaster, recorded digitally and composed into compact disc. Our work consisted of three phases. Phase I: Sixty adults with normal hearing were recruited from Beijing to repeat as many syllables which they heard as possible. According to the randomized block design, 30 lists were presented with 6 intensities including -1 dB, 5 dB, 11 dB, 15 dB, 21 dB and 27 dB HL(speech). The lists and intensities were counterbalanced across all participants. Recognition scores in individual intensities for each list were calculated, and then logistic regression was utilized to fit Performance-Intensity (P-I) function. Two-way (list No. and Intensity) repeated measurement analysis of variance and Post-Hoc Tukey HSD test indicated that 22 lists were equivalent. Phase II: Twenty-two oral/aural normal adults were recruited to assess monosyllable recognition scores with the 22 equivalent lists at 10 dB HL(Speech), according to the Latin-Square design. Tests were administered twice for all participants with the same procedure and situation during 6 to 35 day intervals. The differences in scores (after a "rationalized" arcsine transformation) among 22 lists across over the two sessions is 9.3%, the data were collected from 22 participants, the measurement error was calculated by SD (standard deviation), the critical difference (CD) for test score improvement was 18.3% (determined as SD x 1.96, in 95% confidence level). Phase III: Eighteen participants with sensorineural hearing loss were recruited to assess recognition perception using 18 equivalent monosyllable lists at 30 dB suprathreshold based on Latin-Square design. Tests were administered twice by using the same procedure and situation within 1 to 16 day intervals. The same approach in Phase II was utilized to calculate SD (8.3%). The CD was calculated as 16.3% (in 95% confidence level).

RESULTSA set of standardized Mandarin recognition assessment material had been developed and it consisted of 22 equivalent phonemic-balanced lists with 25 monosyllables each. Approximately, every single list took 2 minutes, and thus it might be appropriate for clinical assessment. The P-I functions reveal that the recognition threshold was (8.30 +/- 0.84) dB HL(speech) and the slope of PI functions was (4.0 +/- 0.3)%/dB for adults with normal hearing. When a set of Mandarin monosyllable lists was utilized as an assessment tool, the critical difference of 18.3% (for normal-hearing adults) and 16.3% (for hearing-impaired adults) would be a key for clinicians to assess the improvement of speech recognition ability appropriately with statistically significance.

CONCLUSIONIn this study, a new Mandarin monosyllabic lists has been successfully developed with a sufficient validity, reliability and sensitivity for clinical evaluations, thus it might be convenience and helpful to be used as a standardized speech recognition assessment tool in China.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Phonetics ; Reproducibility of Results ; Speech Articulation Tests ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo edit the spondee (disyllable) word lists as a part of mandarin speech test materials (MSTM). These will be basic speech materials for routine tests in clinics and laboratories.

METHODSTwo groups of professionals (audiologists, Chinese and Mandarin scientists, linguistician and statistician) were set up at first. The editing principles were established after 3 round table meetings. Ten spondee lists, each with 50 words, were edited and recorded into cassettes. All lists were phonemically balanced (3-dimensions: vowels, consonants and Chinese tones). Seventy-three normal hearing college students were tested. The speech was presented by earphone monaurally. Three statistic methods were used for equivalent analysis.

RESULTSRelated analysis showed that all lists were much related, except List 5. Cluster analysis showed that all ten lists could be classified as two groups. But Kappa test showed that the lists' homogeneity were not well.

CONCLUSIONSSpondee lists are one of the most routine speech test materials. Their editing, recording and equivalent evaluation are affected by many factors. This also needs multi-discipline cooperation. All lists edited in present study need future modification in recording and testing in order to be used clinically and in research. The phonemic balance should be kept.

Adult ; Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the monosyllabic and sentence lists of Mandarin speech test materials (MSTMs) which have been evaluated the equivalence of difficulty, and to establish the performance-intensity function (P-I function) for people with normal hearing. METHOD: Forty subjects (the age-ranged from 18 to 25 years old) who speak Mandarin well in their daily lives with normal hearing participated in this study. Eight of them joined the pilot study, which aimed to identify an appropriate presentation level for the formal test. Thirty-two subjects participated in the formal speech perception test. The results were analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 11.0. Seven monosyllabic lists (50 words per list) and 15 sentence lists (50 key words per list) were used. RESULT: The results showed P-I function of 3.1% per dB for monosyllabic Mandarin materials and 7.4% per dB for sentence Mandarin materials. The sound pressure level of speech corresponding to a 50% recognition score for monosyllabic lists was 30.1 dBSPL or 10.1 dBHL, and 23.1 dBSPL or 3.1 dBHL for sentence lists. CONCLUSION The study established the P-I function of the Mandarin monosyllabic and sentence materials with equal difficulty, which provides the normative data for identifying the normal hearing in a clinical setting.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Audiometry, Speech ; Female ; Humans ; Language ; Male ; Speech Discrimination Tests ; Young Adult