A factor-analytic study of the articulation of selected English consonants.

Abstract

This study obtained the results of a factor analysis of speech articulation data for a sample of elementary school children with functional articulation disorders. A principal components type factor analysis yielded 11 factorially distinct components which could be interpreted in terms of the common placement classification of Fairbanks (1960). Seven of the pretest-posttest reliabilities and five of the split-sample reliabilities for the 11 factors exceeded 0.80. There was little difference between components derived from orthogonal and oblique rotations. The findings of this study and of Schutz, Mowrer, and Baker (1964) raise important questions regarding the validity of the concept of phonetic context in articulation testing for classes of phonemes other than the stops. Moreover, the identification of 11 articulation component scores suggests that articulation research using the multivariable approach proposed would provide more accurate, detailed information concerning a student’s articulation proficiency, as well as information regarding relationships among articulation variables which are obscured when a single measure is used.