Dynamic Association between Phonemic Awareness and Disordered Speech Recognition Moderated by Transcription Training

• Published in: International journal of language & communication disorders Vol. 58; no. 6; pp. 2178 - 2199
• Main Authors: Chen, Yu-Ju, Yeh, Lili
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Wiley 01-11-2023; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Alphabets; Audiology; Auditory Perception; College students; Language; Literacy; Mandarin; Phonemic Awareness; Phonemic transcription; Phonetic Transcription; Phonetics; Phonological awareness; Predictor Variables; Segmentation; Skills; Sound; Speech; Speech disorders; Speech Impairments; Speech recognition; Speech sounds; Speech-language pathologists; Speech-language pathology; Training; Undergraduate Students; transcription training; phonemic awareness; phonetic transcription
• ISSN: 1368-2822; 1460-6984
• DOI: 10.1111/1460-6984.12933

Background: Phonetic transcription of disordered speech samples is especially crucial for the assessment and treatment of functional or organic speech-sound disorders. Previous studies show that students who struggle with the identification and segmentation of speech sounds are more likely to encounter difficulties with clinical phonetic transcription. Aims: To clarify the connection between phonemic awareness and phonetic transcription in Mandarin-speaking undergraduate students, as well as the improvement of these skills after phonetic transcription training. Methods & Procedures: A pretest--post-test design was adopted for this study. The experimental group (n = 38) consisted of students majoring in audiology and speech-language pathology who were given 12 weeks of transcription training. The control group (n = 33) consisted of audiology and speech--language pathology majors who completed the same module a year earlier without undergoing the transcription training. Two instruments were used to assess their skills: (1) the Phonemic Awareness Skill Test (PA test) and (2) the Phonetic Transcription Skill Test (PT test) designed for the purposes of the present study. Outcomes & Results: Performance on most subtests of the PT and PA tests improved significantly at post-test for the experiment group, although only PT training was provided. After phonetic transcription training, the relationship between phonemic addition abilities and phonetic transcription strengthened. Phonemic identification was found to be a predictor of undergraduate students' PT skills of disordered speech samples. Conclusions & Implications: Results from this study provide insights into the role of phonetic transcription training in improving phonemic awareness and phonetic transcription skills.