• The Journal of Advanced Prosthodontics
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.71-76
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• 2010

PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to compare men with women in terms of speech intelligibility, to investigate the validity of objective acoustic parameters related with speech intelligibility, and to try to set up the standard data for the future study in various field in prosthodontics. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Twenty men and women were served as subjects in the present study. After recording of sample sounds, speech intelligibility tests by three speech pathologists and acoustic analyses were performed. Comparison of the speech intelligibility test scores and acoustic parameters such as fundamental frequency, fundamental frequency range, formant frequency, formant ranges, vowel working space area, and vowel dispersion were done between men and women. In addition, the correlations between the speech intelligibility values and acoustic variables were analyzed. RESULTS. Women showed significantly higher speech intelligibility scores than men and there were significant difference between men and women in most of acoustic parameters used in the present study. However, the correlations between the speech intelligibility scores and acoustic parameters were low. CONCLUSION. Speech intelligibility test and acoustic parameters used in the present study were effective in differentiating male voice from female voice and their values might be used in the future studies related patients involved with maxillofacial prosthodontics. However, further studies are needed on the correlation between speech intelligibility tests and objective acoustic parameters.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.171-176
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• 2009

Intelligibility measurement is one criterion for the assessment of the severity of speech disorders especially of dysarthric persons. Rate control, usually rate reduction, is used with many dysarthric speakers to improve their intelligibility. The purpose of this study is to compare how change intelligibility of speech produced by cerebral palsic speakers according to three speaking conditions. Speech samples were collected from 10 adults with cerebral palsy were asked to speak under three speaking conditions-(1) naturally(control), (2) more slowly(rate control), (3) louder and accurately(clear speech). In a perception test, after listening to the speech samples, a group of three judges were to write down whatever they heard. The result showed that total cerebral palsic subjects were divided into two subgroups according to their intelligibility according to three speaking conditions. Some subjects showed that speech intelligibility increased greatly if asked to speak 'louder and more accurately'. and the others showed no difference of intelligibility according to the speaking conditions. This study suggested that it would be useful clinically to find out the best instruction to improve intelligibility suitable for each speaker with cerebral palsy.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.141-148
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• 2011

There are many factors that affect speech intelligibility and speech acceptability. Structural anomalies and neuromotor pathologies are known for the reasons of abnormal speech sounds. And there are minor variations related to oral mechanism. Speaking with restricted mouth opening related to therapeutic procedure or habitual speech pattern might affect the quality of speech sounds. So this study compared speech intelligibility and speech acceptability of recorded 24 words in two conditions (restricted mouth opening condition and normal mouth opening condition) by 30 normal hearing adults. The results showed that speech intelligibility and speech acceptability were significantly lower in restricted mouth opening condition. And speech acceptability was significantly lower than speech intelligibility in restricted mouth opening condition. Speech acceptability in restricted mouth opening condition was significantly lower especially in open vowel. These findings indicated that the mouth opening condition could affect vowel shape and could be an adverse effect on speech intelligibility and speech acceptability.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2010

The present study confirmed the intelligibility improvement benefit of clear speech by investigating the intelligibility of Korean stops produced in different speaking styles: conversational, citation-form, and clear speech. This finding supports the Hypo- & Hyper-speech theory that speakers adjust vocal effort to accommodate hearers' speech perception difficulty. A progressive intelligibility improvement was found for the three speaking styles investigated: clear speech was more intelligible than citation-form speech citation-form speech was more intelligible than conversational speech and clear speech was also more intelligible than conversational speech. These findings suggest that the manipulations to elicit three distinct speaking styles in a laboratory setting were successful. Korean lenis stops showed the least intelligibility improvement among the three Korean stop types, and this result suggests that lenis stops should be more resistant to intelligibility enhancement efforts in clear speech than aspirated and fortis stops.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Integrative Medicine
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.191-206
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• 2018

Purpose : This study investigated the correlation between speech intelligibility and acoustic measurements of speech sounds produced by the children with speech sound disorders and children without any diagnosed speech sound disorder. Methods : A total of 60 children with and without speech sound disorders were the subjects of this study. Speech samples were obtained by having the subjects? speak meaningful words. Acoustic measurements were analyzed on a spectrogram using the Multi-speech 3700 program. Speech intelligibility was determined according to a listener's perceptual judgment. Results : Children with speech sound disorders had significantly lower speech intelligibility than those without speech sound disorders. The intensity of the vowel /u/, the duration of the vowel /${\omega}$/, and the second formant of the vowel /${\omega}$/ were significantly different between both groups. There was no difference in voice onset time between the groups. There was a correlation between acoustic measurements and speech intelligibility. Conclusion : The results of this study showed that the speech intelligibility of children with speech sound disorders was affected by intensity, word duration, and formant frequency. It is necessary to complement clinical setting results using acoustic measurements in addition to evaluation of speech intelligibility.

• MALSORI
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• no.43
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• pp.25-44
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• 2002

The intelligibility of a spoken message is influenced by a number of factors. Intelligibility is a joint product of a speaker and a listener. In addition, intelligibility varies with the nature of the language context and the context of communication. Thus a single intelligibility score can not be ascribed to a given individual apart from listener and listening situation. But there is a clinical and research need to develop assessment measures of intelligibility that are quantitative and analytic. Before developing the index of intelligibility, the crucial factors need to be examined. Among them, the most significant in intelligibility is the speech factors of speakers. The following section reviews the literature dealing with the contribution of segmental and suprasegmental factors in speech intelligibility regarding the hearing impaired, alaryngeal, and motor disorders.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.89-96
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• 2014

This study measured speech intelligibility in relation to the vowel space area and the perception of the listener through acoustic analysis of children who had received cochlear implants. It also provided basic data in the evaluation of speech intelligibility by analyzing the correlation between the vowel space area and speech intelligibility. As a research method, the vowel space area was analyzed by obtaining the value of $F_1$, $F_2$ in children three years after receiving cochlear implants, and compared them to normal children by measuring speech intelligibility through interval scaling. A product-moment correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the correlation. Results showed that the vowel space area of the children who had received cochlear implants was significantly different from that of the normal children, though their speech intelligibility showed similar points to those of the normal children. The results of the correlation analysis on the vowel space area and speech intelligibility showed no significant correlation. Therefore, the period of improving intelligibility after receiving cochlear implants and the objective standards of the vowel space area could be established. In addition, the acoustic rating was required to increase the accuracy of the objective measurement in the evaluation of speech intelligibility.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.171-178
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• 2010

This study examined the relationship between speech intelligibility and comprehensibility for hearing impaired children with cochlear implants. Speech intelligibility was measured by orthographic transcription method for acoustic signal at the level of words and sentences. Comprehensibility was evaluated by examining listener's ability to answer questions about the contents of a narrative. Speech samples were collected from 12 speakers(age of 6~15 years) with cochlear implants. For each speaker, 4 different listeners(total of 48 listeners) completed 2 tasks: One task involved making orthographic transcriptions and the other task involved answering comprehension questions. The results of the study were as follows: (1) Speech intelligibility and comprehensibility scores tended to be increased by decreasing of severity. (2) Across all speakers, the relationship was significant between speech intelligibility and comprehensibility scores without considering severity. However, within severity groups, there was the significant relationship between comprehensibility and speech intelligibility only for moderate-severe group. These results suggest that speech intelligibility scores measured by orthographic transcription may not accurately reflect how well listener comprehend speech of children with cochlear implants and therefore, measures of both speech intelligibility and listener comprehension should be considered in evaluating speech ability and information-bearing capability in speakers with cochlear implants.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.129-136
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• 2017

This study investigates the effect of voice quality on speech intelligibility and the relationship between voice quality and intelligibility for children with spastic CP. We recruited 36 children with spastic CP (mean age 10.43 year, 17 girls, 19 boys, spastic type 34, mixed 2) from a special school and a rehabilitation hospital. Voice samples for the perceptual analysis of voice quality were extracted from a sustained vowel /a/ and were rated on the GRBAS scales by two experienced speech language pathologists. Ten adult subjects with no hearing problems evaluated speech intelligibility for the 37 words listed in the Assessment of Phonology and Articulation for Children on a 7-point interval scale. The children with spastic CP were divided into three groups according to the rated G scores on the GRBAS scales (G1(n)=10, G2(n)=13, G3(n)=13). Analyses of ANCOVA and Pearson correlation showed that there was a significant difference in speech intelligibility among three groups. There was also a significant correlation in G scale (grade), A scale (asthenia), B scale (breathy) score, and speech intelligibility. These findings suggest that poor speech intelligibility of spastic CP might be related to asthenia and breathiness. Vocal intensity should be increased and vocal functioning should be improved for speech therapy to improve speech intelligibility of the children with spastic CP.

• MALSORI
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• no.47
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• pp.141-151
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• 2003

The speech intelligibility of congenitally deafened children shows the change after cochlear implantation. The predicting factors of change in speech intelligibility are the age of implantation, the duration of implant use, and communication mode etc.. Among these factors, the age of implantation seems to be one of the most important predictors. But those factors including age of implantation can explain only some parts of the variance. Therefore, the further study to find the factors which affect the speech intelligibility should be done.