Investigation of the listening environment of classrooms for elderly people using speech intelligibility tests

Chan-Jae Park; Bo-Gyeong Kim; Chan-Hoon Haan

doi:10.7776/ASK.2021.40.1.018

All Issue

2021 Vol.40, Issue 1 Preview Page Next Page

Research Article

Investigation of the listening environment of classrooms for elderly people using speech intelligibility tests 음성명료도 시험에 의한 노인 교육시설의 청취환경 조사

31 January 2021. pp. 18-30

PDF XML

Abstract

The ultimate goal of the present study is to establish the acoustical performance standards of classroom for the elderly who are incomplete hearing people. As a pilot survey, the present study was conducted to investigate the listening environment and the actual condition of speech perception performance of education facilities for elderly, Acoustic performances of two education facilities for elderly in Cheongju were measured and questionnaire survey was done to elderly people. Also, speech intelligibility tests were undertaken by Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) and Phonetically Balanced Words (PBW) methods. The questionnaire survey showed that the elderly were satisfied with the listening environment of the educational facilities in general. Also, it was found that acoustical performances satisfy with the acoustic criteria of general classrooms in Korea. However, the results of the speech intelligibility test showed that the scores of elderly were significantly lower than twenties with normal hearing. It was also revealed that the scores are reduced as the age increases. Thus, it was concluded that the acoustical performance standards of educational facilities for the normal hearing were not suitable for educational facilities for the elderly.

Keywords

Hearing ability of elderly people

Incomplete hearing people

Listening environment

Acoustic performance

Acoustic measurement

Questionnaire survey

Speech intelligibility test

본 연구의 궁극적인 목적은 청력 비완전자인 노인을 위한 학습공간의 음향기준을 제시하기 위한 것이다. 사전연구로서 본 연구는 현재 운영 중인 노인 교육시설의 청취환경을 조사하고 이를 이용 중인 노인의 음성 인지성능 실태를 조사하기 위해 진행되었다. 이를 위하여, 청주시 소재 2개 노인 교육시설을 대상으로 물리적 음향성능을 측정하고 설문조사 를 실시하였다. 또한, 음절법과 단어법을 이용한 음성명료도 평가를 수행하였다. 노인을 대상으로 한 설문조사 결과 전반적인 쳥취환경에는 만족하는 것으로 나타났다. 배경소음, 신호대잡음비, 잔향시간, 음성전달지수와 같은 물리적 음향성능 측정 결과 대한민국 일반교실의 음향성능 기준을 만족하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 그러나 음성명료도 평가 결과 20대 건청인에 비해 노인 그룹의 점수가 20점 이상의 차이로 월등히 낮았으며, 연령대가 높아질수록 점수 또한 낮아지는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 현재 사용 중인 일반인 대상 교육시설의 음향성능 기준이 노인 교육시설에 적합하지 않음을 알 수 있었다.

키워드

노인 청력

청력비완전자

청취환경

음향성능

음향측정

설문조사

음성명료도 평가

References

Statistics Korea, "2020 Statistics of the elderly," Rep., 2020.

Government of the Republic Korea, "Plan for ageing society and population," Rep., 2008.

C. J. Park, Establishment of the acoustical performance criteria for middle and high school classrooms in Korea, (Ph.D. thesis, Chungbuk National University, 2014).

S. H. Kim, S. S. Jang, J. H. Shin, C. K. Yeo, Y. K. Han, and J. K. Lee, "Age- and gender- specific reference levels for hearing thresholds of normal aging in korea," (in Korean), J. Acoust. Soc. Kr. 24, 353-357 (2005).

K. H. Jeong, Y. H. Oh, E. N. Kang, J. H. Kim, W. D. Sun, M. A. Oh, Y. K. Lee, N. H. Hwang, K. R. Kim, S. H. Oh, B. M. Park, H. G. Shin, and K. R. Lee "2014 Survey on the actual conditions of the elderly," Ministry of Health & Welfare & Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs, Rep., 2014.

S. E. Lee, "Factors affecting cognitive function in older persons with hearing impairment" (in Korean), J. Speec.-Lang. & Hear. Dis. Kr. 25, 263-272 (2016). 10.15724/jslhd.2016.25.4.020

KS F 2864-2012, Measurement of Room Acoustics Parameters - Part 2: Reverberation Time in Ordinary Rooms, 3382:1997, 2018.

M. D. Egan, Architectural Acoustics (J. Ross Pub., Florida, 2007), pp. 325.

K. S. Pearsons, R. L. Bennett, and S. Fidell, "Speech levels in various noise environments," U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1977.

ANSI/ASA S12.60, Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools - Part 1 : Permanent Schools, American National Standard, 2010.

Building Bulletin 93, Acoustic Design of Schools, The Department for Education and Skills, 2011.

C. S. Yoon, S. W. Kim, and Y. K. Oh, "A study on the standardization of articulation testing method and its evaluation suitable for korean language (II)-evaluation on the proposed of articulation testing standard-" (in Korean), J. Archit. Inst. Kr. 5, 95-108 (1989).

B. W. Kim, J. J. Kim, S. T. Kim, and Y. J. Lee "A study on the design and the construction of a Korean speech DB for common use," (in Korean), J. Acoust. Soc. Kr. 16, 35-41 (1997).

M. Nilsson, S. D. Soli, and J. Sullivan, "Development of the hearing in noise test for the measurement of speech reception thresholds in quiet and in noise," J. Acous. Soc. Am. 95, 1085-1099 (1994). 10.1121/1.4084698132902

P. B. Nelson, D. S. Sigfrid, and A. Seltz, Classroom Acoustics II : Acoustical Barriers to Learning (Acoustical Society of America, New York, 2002), pp. 1-15.

T. Houtgast, "The effect of ambient noise on speech intelligibility in classrooms," Applied Acoustics, 14, 15-25 (1981). 10.1016/0003-682X(81)90040-2

Information

Publisher :The Acoustical Society of Korea
Publisher(Ko) :한국음향학회
Journal Title :The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
Journal Title(Ko) :한국음향학회지
Volume : 40
No :1
Pages :18-30
Received Date : 2020-12-09
Revised Date : 2021-01-05
Accepted Date : 2021-01-19
DOI :https://doi.org/10.7776/ASK.2021.40.1.018

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea ISSN:1225-4428(Print) 2287-3775(Online) 한국음향학회지

All Issue