Poor Listeners Research Articles

A Study of Metacognitive Awareness of Non-English Majors in L2 Listening

The study used MALQ developed by Vandergrift et al. (2006), an interview and a listening comprehension test to investigate non-English majors’ metacognitive awareness in English listening and the relationship between metacognitive awareness and listening comprehension performance. The results revealed a lack of metacognitive awareness in the subjects and a significant discrepancy between good listeners and poor listeners. Since metacognitive awareness is proved to influence listening comprehension in a positive way, teachers are suggested to develop students’ autonomous learning ability from this perspective and establish learner-centered listening teaching mode.

Adolescents′ perceptions of their school′s acoustic environment: The development of an evidence based questionnaire

A poor acoustic environment in a school is known to negatively affect pupils' learning and achievement. This paper presents the design and findings of an online questionnaire survey of 11-16 year olds' impressions of their school's acoustic environment. A total of 2588 English secondary school pupils responded to the questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to identify variables which best characterized pupils' impressions of their school's acoustic environment. Four factors, corresponding to ease of hearing in school spaces, sensitivity to noise, the consequences of noise in the classroom, and annoyance to intermittent noise, accounted for 43% of the total variance in pupils' responses to the questionnaire. Analysis of the responses on these factors showed that pupils who reported additional learning needs such as hearing impairment, speaking English as an additional language or receiving learning support reported being significantly more affected by poor school acoustics than pupils reporting no additional learning needs. Older pupils were significantly more sensitive to noise annoyance and to the consequences of poor acoustical conditions on their learning and behaviour than younger pupils. Pupils attending suburban schools featuring cellular classrooms that were not exposed to a nearby noise sources were more positive about their school acoustics than pupils at schools with open plan classroom designs or attending schools that were exposed to external noise sources. The study demonstrates that adolescents are reliable judges of their school's acoustic environment, and have insight into the disruption to teaching and learning caused by poor listening conditions. Furthermore, pupils with additional learning needs are more at risk from the negative effects of poor school acoustics.

The Diagnosis and Management of Auditory Processing Disorder

To provide a personal perspective on auditory processing disorder (APD), with reference to the recent clinical forum on APD and the needs of clinical speech-language pathologists and audiologists. The Medical Research Council-Institute of Hearing Research (MRC-IHR) has been engaged in research into APD and auditory learning for 8 years. This commentary is informed by and describes that and other research. Currently, APD is ill defined, and training-based interventions appear to have limited effectiveness. However, there remains a huge clinical and caregiver appetite for evidence-based information about children's listening difficulties and how they might be managed. MRC-IHR research suggests that both the problem and the solution revolve around auditory cognition and, in particular, working memory and attention. Children who are poor listeners tend to have a range of cognitive difficulties. But, results of training studies within and beyond auditory science indicate that training primarily influences sustained attention (focus) rather than more basic sensory detection or discrimination. Providing logical and rigorous scientific information on the nature and alleviation of listening difficulties in children should remain a high priority for speech, language, and hearing research. We should be optimistic that collaboration between clinicians and researchers will result in much greater understanding and improved management of listening disorders in the near future.

Teaching Academic and Professional English Online

This paper will present the design and findings of an online questionnaire survey of 11–16 year olds’ impressions of their school's acoustic environment, and of an experimental study into the effects of typical levels of classroom noise on adolescent's performance on numeracy and cognitive functioning tasks. Analysis of the responses to the questionnaire found that pupils who reported additional learning needs such as hearing impairment, speaking English as an additional language or receiving learning support reported being significantly more affected by poor school acoustics than pupils reporting no additional learning needs. Pupils attending suburban schools featuring cellular classrooms that were not exposed to a nearby noise sources were more positive about their school acoustics than pupils at schools with open plan classroom designs or attending schools that were exposed to external noise sources. The study demonstrates that adolescents are reliable judges of their school's acoustic environment, and have insight into the disruption to teaching and learning caused by poor listening conditions. Furthermore, pupils with additional learning needs are more at risk from the negative effects of poor school acoustics.

Poor Listening Conditions Impair Memory for Intelligible Lectures: Implications for Acoustic Classroom Standards

This paper reports two experiments on the effects of degraded speech signals on memory for spoken lectures. Experiment 1 showed that broadband noise impairs university students' memory for a spoken lecture, even though the participants heard what was said. Experiment 2 showed that reverberation has detrimental effects to school adolescents' memory for spoken lectures, similar to broadband noise. The results suggest that poor listening conditions (resulting from background noise and/or long reverberation time) impair memory and learning, even if the conditions allow the listeners to hear what is said. Since the goal for students and pupils attending to lectures is to remember the lecture rather than just hearing what is said, the results presented here indicate that standards for acceptable signal-to-noise ratios and reverberation times in buildings designed for learning should consider the distinction between speech intelligibility and memory. Standards should be based on memory criteria instead of intelligibility criteria.

The neural bases underlying pitch processing difficulties

Normal listeners are often surprisingly poor at processing pitch changes. The neural bases of this difficulty were explored using magnetoencephalography (MEG) by comparing participants who obtained poor thresholds on a pitch-direction task with those who obtained good thresholds. Source-space projected data revealed that during an active listening task, the poor threshold group displayed greater activity in the left auditory cortical region when determining the direction of small pitch glides, whereas there was no difference in the good threshold group. In a passive listening task, a mismatch response (MMNm) was identified for pitch-glide direction deviants, with a tendency to be smaller in the poor listeners. The results imply that the difficulties in pitch processing are already apparent during automatic sound processing, and furthermore suggest that left hemisphere auditory regions are used by these listeners to consciously determine the direction of a pitch change. This is in line with evidence that the left hemisphere has a poor frequency resolution, and implies that normal listeners may use the sub-optimal hemisphere to process pitch changes.

Listening Effectively For Results in an ESL/EFL Classroom.

Unlike writing and speaking, the listening skill is often overlooked probably because they are hard to observe and measure. Children and students are expected to listen but are never taught to listen as they are taught to speak, read and write. This negligence has contributed a lot to students' poor performance in schools and a breakdown in everyday communication. This study tries to differentiate between hearing and listening; looks into the different listening styles exhibited by people; gives reasons why people are poor listeners and how to develop effective listening habit. It also states what an ideal listening process ought to be; what people listen to and how to improve listening through active and critical listening. African Research Review Vol. 1 (1) 2007: pp. 47-54

Frequency discrimination in children: Perception, learning and attention

It is generally believed that both sensory immaturity and inattention contribute to the poor listening of some children. However, the relative contribution of each factor, within and between individuals, and the nature of the inattention are poorly understood. In three experiments we examined the threshold and response variability of 6–11 y.o. children on pure tone frequency discrimination (FD) tasks. We first confirmed that younger children had both higher thresholds and greater within- and between-listener variability than older children and adults. Higher thresholds were mostly attributed to high response variability due to poor sustained attention. We next compared performance on the auditory FD task with that on visual spatial FD. No correlation was found between the thresholds or variability of individuals on the two tasks, suggesting involvement of modality-specific attention. Finally, we found lower thresholds for 8–9 y.o. children performing auditory FD training in a classroom than in the laboratory, possibly due to training session length or to a more familiar, motivating and focussed training environment. The adult-like performance of many younger children at times during their testing or training, together with the high response variability of immature performers, suggested that most elevated FD thresholds in children are due to inattention.

Divided-Attention and Directed-Attention Listening Modes in Children with Dichotic Deficits: An Event-Related Potential Study

Dichotic listening (DL) procedures are commonly employed in the evaluation of auditory processing in children. Review of the various clinical tests reveals considerable diversity in both the signals employed and their mode of administration. The extent to which other non auditory-specific factors influence the test outcome is often difficult to determine. Individual differences in memory, attention, facility with test stimuli, and report strategy are always of potential concern in the interpretation of results. In the present study, we examined behavioral and electrophysiological (ERP) responses for 20 children during two DL tasks. Two groups of children were evaluated. One group was comprised of children who showed substantial ear differences on clinical measures of DL; the other group showed no such deficits and served as age-matched controls. In one of the DL tasks, participants monitored dichotic stimuli using the divided-attention (unfocused) mode. In the other DL task, a directed-attention (focused) mode was employed. Both tasks involved simple "same-different" judgments for real words presented in a basic reference-probe paradigm. We purposefully sought an easy DL task in order to minimize the number of extra-auditory factors influencing their performance. For control purposes, a diotic procedure involving the same stimuli was also included. Results showed that the amplitude of the elicited late-positive component (LPC) was smaller and prolonged in latency for the group of poor listeners as compared to the control group. This finding occurred only when dichotic stimuli were presented in the divided-attention mode. When participants directed their attention to a single side, or when listening in a diotic mode, the LPC for both groups was more similar. Group differences in the N400 component were apparent for both listening tasks. Results are discussed in relation to an inability of some children to inhibit processing of unattended auditory information. Implications for the clinical administration of dichotic listening tests are also discussed.

Psychotic and Manic-like Symptoms During Stimulant Treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

A boy 6 years 9 months of age was brought by his mother to a child psychiatrist for difficulties with sustained attention, distraction, careless errors, poor listening, difficulty following instructions, difficulty with organization, frequently misplaced items, and forgetfulness in daily activities. He had no history of impulsive or hyperactive behavior, mood symptoms, or tics. He had been born after an unremarkable full-term pregnancy to a 43-year-old mother who did not use alcohol or drugs during pregnancy. The child was delivered by cesarean section after failure to progress in labor and had a normal postnatal course. His family history was negative for mood disorders, psychosis, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, or tics. Several months later, the symptoms had been confirmed in the home, school, and tutoring environments. The patient, then 7 years 4 months of age, was started on methylphenidate, and he showed a clear dose-response effect. An extended-release formulation of methylphenidate was then prescribed, and the dose was gradually increased over a 2-month period to 40 mg per day. At this dose, the patient had a strongly beneficial response, and the only side effect noted was mild anorexia. Eight months later, at 8 years 3 months of age, after a flu-like illness, he developed new symptoms, which included complaints of hearing voices and seeing adults when no one was present, a desire to throw himself down the stairs, high levels of anxiety, tearfulness at school, an unwillingness to leave his mother's side, and irritability.

Strengthening Social Worker-Client Relationships in Child Protective Services

Few researchers have set out to explore parents’ feelings about their experiences with Child Protective Services (CPS) particularly as they relate to the relationship between workers and parents who come to the attention of CPS. Yet the worker-client relationship is a central aspect of social work intervention, contributing to positive case resolutions. Understanding aspects of this relationship can contribute to improved CPS. This article reports findings from a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews to explore the experiences of 61 parents who had involvement with CPS.1 Parents appreciated workers who were caring, genuine, empathetic, exceptionally helpful, non-judgmental, and accepting. Negative qualities of workers identified by parents were being judgmental, cold and uncaring, poor listeners, critical, and insincere. Child protection interventions can result in greater actual and/or perceived power imbalances between the client and the worker compared to other social work interventions. Our findings, however, suggest that a positive alliance can be achieved within the context of the adversarial and complex nature of CPS. Possible ways to maintain relationships or rebuild ‘ruptured’ relationships are suggested.

Neuropsychology/Language/Behavior: Pediatric

Abstract 1 Dana Boatman, 1,2 William Trescher, 3 Cynthia Smith, 1 Jenna Los, 1 Qian Gao, 2 Joshua Ewen, and 1 Eileen Vining ( 1 Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD ; 2 Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD ; and 3 Mt. Washington Pediatric Hosptial, Baltimore, MD ) Rationale: The purpose of this study was to investigate speech recognition abilities in children with Benign Epilepsy with Central-Temporal Spikes (BECTS). Accurate decoding of spoken speech under different listening conditions is critical for normal language development and verbal communication. Although cognitive and language functions are generally considered normal in BECTS, recent studies have revealed subtle abnormalities. Based on potential involvement of temporal lobe auditory areas, we hypothesized that speech recognition under adverse listening conditions (e.g., background noise) is impaired in BECTS. To test this hypothesis, we combined behavioral and objective measures of speech recognition in a within-subject, repeated-measures design. Methods: Five children, ages 7–11, were tested. All had normal hearing and intelligence (FSIQ ≥ 97), and no speech-language delays. Criteria for the diagnosis of BECTS included EEG sharp activity greater than 100 microvolts with a central-temporal distribution and no focal slowing. Standardized behavioral tests were administered, under headphones, to assess word recognition under good and poor listening conditions. Continuous 26-channel EEG recordings were obtained during behavioral testing. Cortical auditory evoked potentials were recorded separately using speech and tones in a passive oddball paradigm. Subjects underwent repeat testing at 1-month intervals for a total of 2–3 sessions, with no medication changes between sessions. Matched normal controls provided comparative behavioral test-retest data. Results: All BECTS subjects demonstrated excellent word recognition in quiet (≥ 92%) with no changes between sessions (p ≥ 0.12, Fisher exact test). Conversely, 4/5 subjects demonstrated impaired word recognition under adverse listening conditions (background noise, filtered speech) in one or more sessions based on age norms (scaled scores 10 ± 3). Unilateral or bilateral central-temporal sharp waves were present during all but one session when word recognition was impaired. One subject had normal behavioral performance across 3 sessions and no EEG abnormalities. Cortical auditory response latencies for speech showed borderline significant increases when word recognition was impaired (p ≤ 0.057, t-test). Normal controls demonstrated stable word recognition across sessions, regardless of listening conditions (p ≥ 0.49, Fisher exact tests). Conclusions: Results indicate that children with BECTS experience transient speech recognition impairments under everyday listening conditions and associated central-temporal sharp waves. Cortical auditory evoked responses ruled out attention or test-retest familiarity effects. The prevalence of adverse listening conditions in classrooms underscores the potential impact of speech recognition impairments in children with BECTS.

Auditory frequency discrimination learning is affected by stimulus variability

We explored the effects of training set variability on learning and generalization of pure-tone frequency discrimination (FD) in three groups of untrained, normally hearing adult listeners. Group 1 trained using a fixed standard tone at 1 kHz (fixed), Group 2 on slightly varying (roving) tones around 1 kHz, and Group 3 on widely varying standard frequencies (wide-roving). Initially, two thirds of all listeners had low FD thresholds (good listeners) and one third had intermediate to high thresholds (poor listeners). For good listeners, slight variations in the training set slowed learning but wide variations did not. Transfer to untrained frequencies (up to 4 kHz) and to the fixed condition was equivalent regardless of training condition, but Group 1 listeners did not fully transfer learning to the roving condition. For poor listeners, any variation in the training condition slowed learning and impaired transfer to other frequencies but did not affect transfer to untrained conditions. Thus, the effects of training set on progress and outcome depend on set variability and individual FD ability.

Perception of Auditory Movement in Children with Poor Listening Skills: An ERP Study

Long-latency ERP components were examined for scalp activation differences in children with poor and good listening skills in response to auditory movement created by IIDs. Eighteen children were grouped based on a parent questionnaire (CHAPS; Smoski et al, 1998) and clinical evaluation by a licensed audiologist. Obligatory cortical responses were recorded to an auditory movement and an auditory control task. Results showed greatest activation at fronto-central electrode sites. P1, N1, and P2 showed no significant effects. Significant differences in N2 amplitude and latency were present between groups at the lateral electrode sites (FC3, FC4) in the auditory movement but not in the auditory control task. More specifically, good listeners exhibited predominance of activation over the right hemisphere for left-moving sounds, whereas the poor listeners exhibited symmetric activation. These results suggest that abnormal hemispheric activation may be one of the reasons behind poor listening skills observed in some school-aged children.

The Influence of the Compensation System and Personal Variables on a Salesperson's Effective Listening Behaviour

Effective listening is crucial for salespeople to succeed in today's personal selling environment, yet poor listening is still one of the most important factors contributing to a salesperson's failure. Despite its importance, very little research has focused on effective listening in this context. This study proposes a model that explains the effective listening behaviour of salespeople in terms of their method of compensation, ability to use customer knowledge, intrinsic motivation, gender, education and experience. The findings suggest that the above factors, with the exception of experience, are significant determinants of effective listening in the sales environment. A discussion of theoretical and managerial implications is presented, and key areas for future research are suggested.

Finding the wavelength: Tools in communication with children with autism

Children with autism are notoriously poor listeners: indeed, they are often thought to be deaf. The child's ‘theory of mind’ may be inadequate, but his theory of a listener, as well as of a listenable-to person, may also be deficient. Yet there may be a proto-theory of mind, a proto-theory of a listener and talker, on which a carefully calibrated treatment may build. The technical issues for the psychotherapist are difficult: how can we reach a child with little or no language? How can we talk to such a child? The paper describes work with Joseph that attempted to reach the right developmental level by being both playfully receptive and playfully challenging at different moments. Both the languages of ‘motherese’ and ‘fatherese’ were used.

Listening Comprehension in Primary Level Grades Two, Four and Six

Aspects of listening comprehension skills in second-, fourth- and sixth-grade students (n=107) were investigated. The design employed the Sentence Verification Technique (SVT). Participants listened to three narrative and three expository passages, which had been recorded onto a CD, together with test sentences. Compared to the narrative passages, the expository material was more difficult to understand. Girls systematically scored higher than boys on all measures of listening comprehension although this sex difference was small and mostly nonsignificant. These results are comparable with previous findings in reading comprehension research. Age-related improvement in listening comprehension was observed with the narrative, but not with the expository passages. Cluster analysis produced four different comprehension strategies: Good Listening, Poor Listening, and two poor strategies previously hypothesised by Royer et al . (1987), viz. Top-down and Verbatim Strategies. The results are discussed from the point of view of their possible practical significance.

Reversal of Hemispheric Asymmetry on Auditory Tasks in Children Who Are Poor Listeners

We examined hemispheric activation patterns during auditory and visual processing in two groups of children: 13 boys in the age range from 9 to 12 years rated by their parents and teachers as poor listeners and 11 boys in the same age range rated as normal listeners. Three tasks were employed: auditory gap detection, detection of auditory movement, and a control task involving visuospatial discrimination. Electrical activity was recorded from 30 scalp electrodes as participants responded to target stimuli in an event-related potential paradigm. In the visual task, hemispheric activation was relatively symmetric around the midsagittal plane in both groups. In the two auditory tasks, however, hemispheric activation patterns differed significantly between groups. In the normal-listener group, activation was asymmetric to the right hemisphere. In the poor-listener group, however, activation tended toward asymmetry, favoring the left hemisphere. These results suggest that abnormalities in hemispheric lateralization of function may underlie the auditory processing problems of at least some children described as poor listeners.

In the Eye of the Beholder: Children's Perception of Good and Poor Listening Behavior

A speaker's assessment of listening behavior varies according to different listening needs, skills, and attitudes which depend on specific age-related conditions. To be effective as a listener, it is crucial to be aware to the speaker's communicative competence and pertaining listener expectations. Little is known, however, how listener assessment is represented in various age groups. The purpose of this study was to investigate the patterns of behavior on which children account for good or poor listener behavior. 59 ten-year-old elementary students were interviewed with a semi-structured interview and a picture-based assessment task to obtain a clearer picture of what children expect from a listener. Results show that children emphasize overt listening behavior which reassures them as speakers that their listener is focused. Knowing the children's conception of effective listener behavior may help adults to be more efficient when listening to children, thus both supporting their language production skills and providing a positive role model for listening.

Implementation of ANSI S12.60 acoustical performance criteria, design requirements and guidelines for schools

In 1997, the parent of a child with a hearing loss petitioned the U.S. Access Board to include guidelines for classroom acoustics in the accessibility guidelines the Board maintains under the ADA. The Board agreed that poor listening conditions in schools could be a barrier to the education of children with hearing impairments and other disabilities and arranged to collaborate with ASA and other stakeholders on an acoustical standard for classrooms. The Board will submit the completed standard to the International Codes Council for reference in the International Building Code adopted by many states and local jurisdictions, making it enforceable through the local permitting and inspections process. Reference in the ADA Accessibility Guidelines may follow in its next review cycle in 2005. Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) required under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) may also reference the new standard.