Abstract:
BACKGROUND : The 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.
OBJECTIVES : The 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).
METHOD : A 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).
RESULTS : The 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.
CONCLUSIONS : The 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).
Description:
Portions of this study have
been orally presented at the
ENT/SAAA/SASLHA congress,
Sun City, South Africa, on 04
November 2012.