Development of a Speech Training Aids System for Hearing-impaired - - PDF document

Development of a Speech Training Aids System for Hearing-impaired Children

Yongbin Hu

Supervisor: Prof. Ronghuai Huang

Outline of the Presentation

Introduction Relevant study Research question Purpose of research The Goals of the research Experiment design Possible Conclusion Reference

Introduction

According to the figures provided by China Federation of Handicapped People (CFHP), there are about 250 million people with hearing impairment in the world, and more than 20.57 million of them are in China. Due to the language barrier, hearing-impaired people are difficult to integrate into society, and they encountered unimaginable difficulties in the process of living and working. Most hearing-impaired children have some residual hearing, they can be equipped with hearing aids or a cochlear implant, and their auditory function can be improved.

Introduction

How to enhance the language abilities of hearing- impaired children is a hot topic in the world academic community. Speech training aids for hearing-impaired individuals emerges from 1930s. (L. Bernstein, 1988) Speech training aids is a procedure which uses all kind

• f technology, strategy, and method to improve hearing

ability and verbal language development of hearing- impaired children. (Levitt, H., & Oden, C. 2011).

Introduction

Using effective speech training aids system (STAS), and carrying out specific training programs in the critical language learning phase, the language ability of hearing- impaired children can be enhanced.

Relevant studies in abroad

The STAS provides the learner with sound, pictures or videos to instruct the children to pronounce words. (Nickerson et al.,1976;Sheila R.P.et al.,1993) Using a microphone, camera, and other devices, the STAS could provide more information in great detail. After analyzing the presentation on the screen, such as loudness, pitch, spectrum of voice and articulator movement, the children can compare the gathered data with the ideal

• graphics. (A. Oster, 1995.)

Relevant studies in abroad

Using artificial intelligence technology, the STAS will evaluate the pronunciation and then provide feedback to the children. (R. See et al, 2013;H. Zhou et al, 2013)

Relevant study in China

According to my investigation, Dr. Speech is the only one system which was used in China. However, the designer of

• Dr. Speech ignore the significance of Chinese Pinyin, its

practicability is limited. Chinese Pinyin is a basic learning content, and it is the foundation of Chinese language.

Research question

• What is the characteristics of hearing-impaired children in

Chinese language learning?

• How to design and develop a Chinese language Speech

Training Aided System (CLSTAS) for them in language training?

• How to use the CLSTAS to enhance Chinese language

learning?

Purpose of research

• Based on the characteristics of hearing-impaired children,

this research will design and develop Chinese language Speech Training Aided System (CLSTAS) to support their speech training.

The contents of the research

Investigate the characteristics of hearing-impaired children in Chinese language learning Design and develop a CLSTAS

Sound Recognition Training: enhanced the hearing ability to recognize environmental sounds. Pinyin teaching : how to recognize initials, finals, and syllables, through hearing, recognition, seeing, reading and writing.

Design learning activity for them Evaluate the CLSTAS’s performance

Design a experiment to compare different groups. Investigate teachers’ attitude and experience.

Experiment design

1.Participants

• Twenty hearing-impaired children from Nanjing Deaf

School will participate in this study.

• We will use quasi-experimental study to evaluate the

performance of the system. The participants will be divided into two groups based on their pre-testing

• performance. One will be an experimental group, and the
• ther will be control group.

Experiment design

2.Research tools The research tools in this study included Chinese Communicative Development Inventory (CCDI) Mandarin Version and Written and Spoken Skill Tests (WSST). WSST was developed by two experienced teachers. WSST evaluated the degree of accuracy (100%) and degree of fluency (100%) of the pronunciation.

Experiment design

3.Experiment Procedures Six pinyin letters, including three initials and three finals, were selected as the learning materials. The children in the experimental group were guided by STAS while the children in the control group learned with traditional.

20 hearing-impaired children Pre-test Experimental group N=10 Control group N=10 Speech training with SATS Speech training with traditional approach Post-test 60 minutes 120 minute, 3 days 60 minutes

Possible Conclusion

The levels of speech accuracy and speech influence of the children will be improved with the help of CLSTAS. The children and teachers will feel CLSATS is usefulness. The proposed learning activity design is more effective than the traditional approaches.

Possible Conclusion

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