Speech Profile Of Pre-Service Teachers: Input To Speech Enhancement Program And Innovations

Abstract

This investigation focused on the speech profile of pre-service teachers during the school year 2022- 2023 as input for a speech enhancement program and innovations. Specifically, attempts to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of respondents in terms of gender, age, high school type graduated, parents’ educational attainment, employment status, and estimated monthly income; determine speech profile in terms of Vocal Mechanism and Diction; identify their strengths and weaknesses in speech production; determine the significant relationship between speech profile and socio- demographic characteristics; and determine whether speech enhancement program or innovations may be introduced to improve weaknesses in speech production. A descriptive survey research design was used to gather information on the basic and speech profiles of 40 respondents. Results revealed, that respondents were generally female, 20-22 years old, graduated from public senior high school, with high school graduate parents, unemployed, and earned PhP 4,000- PhP8,000. Results showed that respondents were very strong in loudness, articulation, pronunciation, and even in reading rate. However, a closer examination of the data reveals that at least one-third were slow readers. Furthermore, an analysis revealed that females have louder voices than males, demonstrating a substantial relationship between gender and loudness of voice. As evidenced by the extremely significant relationship between rate and gender, females read faster than males. Results also showed that those with working moms could talk more articulately than those with jobless mothers. Finally, results demonstrated that pronunciation is unrelated to any demographic characteristics. A suitable speech enhancement program/innovation was designed to improve proficiency in speech production.