Browse > Article

The Speech Characteristics of Korean Dysarthria: An Experimental Study with the Use of a Phonetic Contrast Intelligibility Test  

Kim Soo Jin (Department of Communication Disorders, Korea Nazarene University)
Kim Young Tae (Interdisciplinary Program of Communication Disorders, Ewha Womans University)
Kim Gi Na (Department of English Language and Literature, Hoseo University)
Abstract
This study was designed to suggest an assessment tool for analyzing the characteristics of Korean phonetic contrast intelligibility among dysarthric individuals. The intelligibility deficit factors of phonetic contrast in Korean dysarthric patients were analyzed through stepwise regression analysis. The 19 acoustic-phonetic contrasts proposed by Kent et al. (1999) have been claimed to be useful for clinical assessment and research on dysarthria. However, the test cannot be directly applied to Korean patients due to linguistic differences between English and Korean. Thus, it is necessary to devise a Korean word intelligibility test that reflects the distinct characteristics of the Korean language. To identify the speech error characteristics of a Korean dysarthric group, a Korean word list was audio-recorded by 3 spastic, 4 flaccid, and 5 mixed type of dysarthric patients. The word list consisted of monosyllabic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) real word pairs. Stimulus words included 41 phonemic contrast pairs and six triplets. The results showed that the percentage of errors in final position contrast was higher than in any other position. Unlike the results of previous studies, the initial-position contrasts were crucial in predicting the overall intelligibility among Korean patients.
Keywords
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Yorkston, K, M., Beukelman, D. B. & Bell, K. R. Clinical Management of Dysarthric Speakers. (Boston: College-Hill Press, 1988)
2 Whitehill, T. L. & Ciocca, V. Perceptual-phonetic predictors of single-word intelligibility: A study of Cantonese dysarthria. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 43, 1451-1465, 2000   DOI
3 Gentile, M. 'Phonetic intelligibility testing in dysarthria for the use of French language clinicians.' Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 6, 179-189, 1992   DOI
4 Ziegler, W., Hartmann. E., & Von Crammon, D. Word identification testing in the diagnostic evaluation of dysarthric speech. Clinical linguistics and Phonetics. 2, 291-308, 1988   DOI
5 Kent, R. D., Kent, J. F., Sufit, R., Rosenbek, J. C., Weismer, G., Martin, R. & Brooks, B. 'Impairment of speech intelligibility in men with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,' Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 55, 721-728, 1990   DOI
6 Ansel, B. M & Kent, R. D. 'Acoustic-phonetic contrasts and intelligibility in the dysarthria associated with mixed cerebral palsy.' Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 296-308, 1992   DOI
7 Kent, R. D., Kim, H-H., Weismer, G. Kent, J. C., Rosenbek, J. C., Brooks, B. R. & Workinger, M. 'Laryngeal dysfunction in neurological disease: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and stroke.' Journal of Medical Speech- Language Pathology, 2 (3), 157-175, 1994
8 Kent, R. D., Weismer, G., Kent, J. F. & Rosenbek, J. C. 'Toward phonetic intelligibility testing in dysarthria, Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54, 482-499, 1989   DOI
9 Kim, S. J. 'Phonetic Contrasts and Intelligibility in Dysarthria: Comparison of Spastic and Flaccid Types.' Doctoral dissertation thesis. (Seoul: Ewha Womans Univ. 2001)
10 Kent, R. D., Weismer, G., Kent, J. F., Vorperian, H. K. & Duffy, J. R. 'Acoustic studies of dysarthric speech: Methods, progress, and potential.' Journal of Communication Disorders, 32, 141-186, 1999   DOI   ScienceOn
11 Yorkston, K. M., Dowden, P. A. & Beukelman, D. R. 'Intelligibility measurement as a tool in the clinical management', In R. D. Kent (Ed.). Intelligibility in Speech Disorders: Theory, Measurement, and Management (Philadelphia: John Benjamin., 1992), pp. 265-286