• Title/Summary/Keyword: reading fluency

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Effects of Background Noises on Speech-related Variables of Adults who Stutter (배경소음상황에 따른 성인 말더듬화자의 발화 관련 변수 비교)

  • Park, Jin;Oh, Sunyoung;Jun, Je-Pyo;Kang, Jin Seok
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.7 no.1
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    • pp.27-37
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    • 2015
  • This study was mainly aimed at investigating on the effects of background noises (i.e., white noise, multi-speaker conversational babble) on stuttering rate and other speech-related measures (i.e., articulation rate, speech effort). Nine Korean-speaking adults who stutter participated in the study. Each of the participants was asked to read a series of passages under each of four experimental conditions (i.e., typical solo reading (TR), choral reading (CR), reading under white noise presented (WR), reading with multi-speaker conversational babble presented (BR). Stuttering rate was computed based on a percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) and articulation rate was also assessed as another speech-related measure under each of the experimental conditions. To examine the amount of physical effort needed to read, the speech effort was measured by using the 9-point Speech Effort Self Rating Scale originally employed by Ingham et al. (2006). Study results showed that there were no significant differences among each of the passage reading conditions in terms of stuttering rate, articulation rate, and speech effort. In conclusion, it can be argued that the two different types of background noises (i.e., white noise and multi-speaker conversational babble) are not different in the extent to which each of them enhances fluency of adults who stutter. Self ratings of speech effort may be also useful in measuring speech-related variables associated with vocal changes induced under each of the fluency enhancing conditions.

A Study on an Application of Creative Skill to Reading Instruction in the School Library (학교도서관 독서교육의 창의성 적용에 관한 연구)

  • Suh, Jin-Won
    • Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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    • v.44 no.3
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    • pp.261-286
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    • 2013
  • I studied on the application of creativity to reading instruction in this paper. Reading strategies and creative thinking skills are categorized. And these are incorporated in the time process of reading instruction. In pre-reading process, Using Prior Knowledge and Reasoning of reading strategies are used and these are incorporated in Fluency and Creativity of the divergent thinking skill. In reading process, Increasing Sensitivity to Text Elements with the Highest Information Load and Structuring and Recognizing Structures of reading strategies are used and these are incorporated in Flexibility and Creativity of the divergent thinking skill. In post-reading process, Reasoning of reading strategies are used and these are incorporated in Creativity of the divergent thinking skill and convergent thinking skill.

Disfluencies and Speech Rates of Standard Korean Speakers in Story-telling and Reading Contexts

  • Shim, Hong-Im;Chon, Hee-Cheong;Ko, Do-Heung
    • Speech Sciences
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    • v.12 no.1
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    • pp.45-51
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study is to compare disfluencies and speech rates (overall speech rate and articulation rate) of normal adult speakers who use the standard Korean according to dissimilar speech tasks (story-telling and text-reading). Participants were 100 Korean adult speakers. The results are summarized as follows: First, the most frequent type of disfluency in the story-telling task was 'interjection', whereas that in the text-reading task was 'revision'. Second, the overall speech rates (syllables per second and syllables per minute) showed significant differences depending on the speech tasks. Third, the articulation rates (syllables per second and syllables per minute) showed significant differences depending on the speech tasks.

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The Noise Effect on Stuttering and Overall Speech Rate: Multi-talker Babble Noise (다화자잡음이 말더듬의 비율과 말속도에 미치는 영향)

  • Park, Jin;Chung, In-Kie
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.121-126
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    • 2012
  • This study deals with how stuttering changes in its frequency in a situation where adult participants who stutter are exposed to one type of background noise, that is, multi-talker babble noise. Eight American English-speaking adults who stutter participated in this study. Each of the subjects read aloud sentences under each of three speaking conditions (i.e., typical solo reading (TSR), typical choral reading (TCR), and multi-talker babble noise reading (BNR)). Speech fluency was computed based on a percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) and speaking rate was also assessed to examine if there was significant change in rates as a measure of vocal change under each of the speaking conditions. The study found that participants read more fluently both during BNR and during TCR than during TSR. The study also found that participants did not show significant changes in speaking rate across the three speaking conditions. Some discussion was provided in relation to the effect of multi-talker babble noise on the frequency of stuttering and its further speculation.

Change in acoustic characteristics of voice quality and speech fluency with aging (노화에 따른 음질과 구어 유창성의 음향학적 특성 변화)

  • Hee-June Park;Jin Park
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.45-51
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    • 2023
  • Voice issues such as voice weakness that arise with age can have social and emotional impacts, potentially leading to feelings of isolation and depression. This study aimed to investigate the changes in acoustic characteristics resulting from aging, focusing on voice quality and spoken fluency. To this end, tasks involving sustained vowel phonation and paragraph reading were recorded for 20 elderly and 20 young participants. Voice-quality-related variables, including F0, jitter, shimmer, and Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPP) values, were analyzed along with speech-fluency-related variables, such as average syllable duration (ASD), articulation rate (AR), and speech rate (SR). The results showed that in voice quality-related measurements, F0 was higher for the elderly and voice quality was diminished, as indicated by increased jitter, shimmer, and lower CPP levels. Speech fluency analysis also demonstrated that the elderly spoke more slowly, as indicated by all ASD, AR, and SR measurements. Correlation analysis between voice quality and speech fluency showed a significant relationship between shimmer and CPP values and between ASD and SR values. This suggests that changes in spoken fluency can be identified early by measuring the variations in voice quality. This study further highlights the reciprocal relationship between voice quality and spoken fluency, emphasizing that deterioration in one can affect the other.

A comparative study of prosodic features according to the syntactic diversities between children with reading disability and nondisabled children (읽기장애아동과 일반아동의 통사적 다양성에 따른 운율 특성 비교)

  • Park, Sungsook;Seong, Cheoljae
    • Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.55-66
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    • 2021
  • Proper prosody in reading allows the reader to naturally convey the meaning, which manifests as changes in pitch, loudness, and speech rate. Children with reading disability face difficulty in delivering information due to poor prosody. This study identified the difference in prosodic features between children with reading disabilities and nondisabled children through means of reading tasks. Reading tasks, according to sentence types (short sentences, assumptions/conditions, intentions, relative-clause), were recorded by 15 children studying in the 3rd to 6th grade in elementary school. Children with reading disability had a statistically significant wider range of pitch, slower speech rate, more frequent usage of pauses, longer total pause duration, and steeper pitch slope than nondisabled one in sentence-final and -medial words. Children with reading disability, therefore, exhibited a less natural and expressive reading than nondisabled children. Through this study, the characteristics of prosody observed in children with reading disability were identified and the need for an approach for effective intervention was also suggested.

A Usability Testing of a Hybrid Mobile Reading Game for Children With Reading Disabilities (읽기장애아동을 위한 하이브리드 모바일 읽기 게임의 사용성 검사)

  • Shin, Mikyung;Park, Eunhye;Hong, Ki-Hyung;Lee, Joohyun;Park, Hyewon
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.18 no.1
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    • pp.314-326
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    • 2018
  • The purpose of this study was to evaluate the usability of a hybrid mobile reading game among 14 parents of children with reading disabilities. The reading game consisted of six steps according to the process of reading (familiarizing with consonants and vowels, acquiring whole words, combining consonants and vowels, reading words, phonological rules, reading fluency). In this study, parents experienced steps one through three of the reading-game app and evaluated the general design features and Universal Design for Learning on a five-point scale. Regarding the general design features, parents rated usability (18 items in total) as high in the following order: interactive design, instructional design, and interface design. Regarding the Universal Design for Learning (9 items in total), parents evaluated usability as high in the following order: providing multiple means of representation, providing multiple means of action and expression, and providing multiple means of engagement. Lastly, suggestions for the improvement of the app, practical implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Aspects of Prosodic Phrases' Formation Produced by Chinese Speakers in the Reading of Korean Text (낭독체에 나타난 중국인 학습자들의 운율구 실현 양상 -청취실험을 바탕으로-)

  • Yune, Young-Sook
    • Speech Sciences
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    • v.15 no.4
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    • pp.29-41
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    • 2008
  • The purpose of this paper is to examine how Chinese speakers realize Korean prosodic phrases in the reading of Korean texts. Prosodic phrase, in this study, is defined as basic unit of spoken language which can be perceived as purely separate phonetic unit by both hearer and speaker, and is realized with a coherent intonational configuration. Prosodic phrase plays an important role in both speech production and perception. In the second language acquisition, prosody influences the accuracy and fluency of spoken language. The main purpose of this study is to describe the aspect of syntagmatic operation of prosody that produces prosodic phrases. We have specifically examined the relations between the prosodic phrase's boundary and its syntactic status. Furthermore, we examined internal syntactic structure of each prosodic phrase. And the results of each analysis were compared to the aspects of prosodic phrases' formation produced by native Korean speakers. The results show that Chinese speakers tend to coincide the prosodic phrases with syntactic structure more than native Korean speakers.

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Effects of Continuous Speech Therapy in Patients with Non-fluent Aphasia Using kMIT (kMIT를 이용한 비유창성 실어증 환자 음성 언어의 치료효과 연구)

  • Lee Ju Hee;Ko Myun Hwan;Kim Hyun Gi;Hong Ki Hwan
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.158-164
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    • 2005
  • Melody intonation therepy (MIT) is to improve the linguistic aspects of the verbal utterance for aphasic patients utilizing the intact right brain. It is applied to the aphasic patients with good comprehension, poor fluency, and little available speech are thought to be ideal candidates. The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of Korean Melody intonation therapy (kMIT) in patients with non-fluent aphasia. Five male non-fluent aphasic patients were participated in this study. Average ages were 49.9 years old. Each therapy took 45-50minutes once a week for six months. Aphasic Screen lest (RISS) was used to assess language parameter such as Auditory comprehension, oral expression, reading, writing and calculation ability before and after kMIT. Mean of Length Utterance, verbal intelligibility and articulation disorder were assessed also. Computerized Speech Lab was used to assess the acoustic characteristics of aphasic patients before and after kMIT. The results are as follows : 1) Auditory comprehension, oral expression, reading, writing and calculation ability of the subjects increased after UH'. However, only oral expression showed significant difference (p<0.05). 2) Mean of Length Utterance of five patients generally increased after Un. 3) After kMIT, verbal intelligibility increased and showed significant difference (p<0.05). 4) Misarticulation rate generally decreased after m. 5) Voice Onset Time of the alveolar lenis /t/ and velar lenis /k/ gradually decreased after kMIT. 6) However, intonation pattern were increased gradually in yes'no question after kMIT.

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Neuropsychological Assessment of Adult Patients with Shunted Hydrocephalus

  • Bakar, Emel Erdogan;Bakar, Bulent
    • Journal of Korean Neurosurgical Society
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    • v.47 no.3
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    • pp.191-198
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    • 2010
  • Objective : This study is planned to determine the neurocognitive difficulties of hydrocephalic adults. Methods : The research group contained healthy adults (control group, n : 15), and hydrocephalic adults (n : 15). Hydrocephalic group consisted of patients with idiopathic aquaduct stenosis and post-meningitis hydrocephalus. All patients were followed with shunted hydrocephalus and not gone to shunt revision during last two years. They were chosen from either asymptomatic or had only minor symptoms without motor and sensorineural deficit. A neuropsychological test battery (Raven Standart Progressive Matrices, Bender-Gestalt Test, Cancellation Test, Clock Drawing Test, Facial Recognition Test, Line Orientation Test, Serial Digit Learning Test, Stroop Color Word Interference Test-TBAG Form, Verbal Fluency Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Visual-Aural Digit Span Test-B) was applied to all groups. Results : Neuropsychological assessment of hydrocephalic patients demonstrated that they had poor performance on visual, semantic and working memory, visuoconstructive and frontal functions, reading, attention, motor coordination and executive function of parietal lobe which related with complex and perseverative behaviour. Eventually, these patients had significant impairment on the neurocognitive functions of their frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. On the other hand, the statistical analyses performed on demographic data showed that the aetiology of the hydrocephalus, age, sex and localization of the shunt (frontal or posterior parietal) did not affect the test results. Conclusion : This prospective study showed that adult patients with hydrocephalus have serious neuropsychological problems which might be directly caused by the hydrocephalus; and these problems may cause serious adaptive difficulties in their social, cultural, behavioral and academic life.