Abstract
BackgroundThe home language of most audiologists in South Africa is either English or Afrikaans, whereas most South Africans speak an African language as their home language. The use of an English wordlist, the South African Spondaic (SAS) wordlist, which is familiar to the English Second Language (ESL) population, was developed by the author for testing the speech recognition threshold (SRT) of ESL speakers.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to compare the pure-tone average (PTA)/SRT correlation results of ESL participants when using the SAS wordlist (list A) and the CID W-1 spondaic wordlist (list B – less familiar; list C – more familiar CID W-1 words).MethodA mixed-group correlational, quantitative design was adopted. PTA and SRT measurements were compared for lists A, B and C for 101 (197 ears) ESL participants with normal hearing or a minimal hearing loss (<26 dBHL; mean age 33.3).ResultsThe Pearson correlation analysis revealed a strong PTA/SRT correlation when using list A (right 0.65; left 0.58) and list C (right 0.63; left 0.56). The use of list B revealed weak correlations (right 0.30; left 0.32). Paired sample t-tests indicated a statistically significantly stronger PTA/SRT correlation when list A was used, rather than list B or list C, at a 95% level of confidence.ConclusionsThe use of the SAS wordlist yielded a stronger PTA/SRT correlation than the use of the CID W-1 wordlist, when performing SRT testing on South African ESL speakers with normal hearing, or minimal hearing loss (<26 dBHL).
Highlights
BackgroundSouth Africa is a country with a distinctly unique amalgamation of languages, dialects, cultures and linguistic communities (Swanepoel, 2006)
This is in stark contrast to the demographics of South Africa, where the home language of 77% of the population is an African language (Statistics South Africa, 2012)
The current study aims to determine the correlation of the speech recognition threshold (SRT) obtained with the South African Spondaic (SAS) wordlist, when compared to pure-tone average (PTA)
Summary
BackgroundSouth Africa is a country with a distinctly unique amalgamation of languages, dialects, cultures and linguistic communities (Swanepoel, 2006). The majority of audiologists registered in South Africa are English- or Afrikaans-speaking individuals (Penn, Frankel, Watermeyer & Muller, 2009) who are unlikely to speak an African language (Khoza, Ramma, Mophosho & Moroka, 2008). This is in stark contrast to the demographics of South Africa, where the home language of 77% of the population is an African language (Statistics South Africa, 2012). English is the language of learning and teaching (LoLT) for more than 90% of South African learners (De Wet, 2002) It is within this context that audiologists in South Africa are aiming to provide quality audiological assessments to the population. The use of an English wordlist, the South African Spondaic (SAS) wordlist, which is familiar to the English Second Language (ESL) population, was developed by the author for testing the speech recognition threshold (SRT) of ESL speakers
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