Psychometrically equivalent bisyllabic words for speech recognition threshold testing in Vietnamese

Abstract

Objective: This study identified, digitally recorded, edited and evaluated 89 bisyllabic Vietnamese words with the goal of identifying homogeneous words that could be used to measure the speech recognition threshold (SRT) in native talkers of Vietnamese. Design: Native male and female talker productions of 89 Vietnamese bisyllabic words were recorded, edited and then presented at intensities ranging from −10 to 20 dBHL. Logistic regression was used to identify the best words for measuring the SRT. Forty-eight words were selected and digitally edited to have 50% intelligibility at a level equal to the mean pure-tone average (PTA) for normally hearing participants (5.2 dBHL). Study sample: Twenty normally hearing native Vietnamese participants listened to and repeated bisyllabic Vietnamese words at intensities ranging from −10 to 20 dBHL. Results: A total of 48 male and female talker recordings of bisyllabic words with steep psychometric functions (>9.0%/dB) were chosen for the final bisyllabic SRT list. Only words homogeneous with respect to threshold audibility with steep psychometric function slopes were chosen for the final list. Conclusions: Digital recordings of bisyllabic Vietnamese words are now available for use in measuring the SRT for patients whose native language is Vietnamese.

Key Words:

• Auditory word recognition
• bisyllabic
• digitally recorded
• equivalent
• homogeneity
• logistic regression
• psychometric function
• speech audiometry
• speech discrimination
• speech perception
• speech recognition threshold
• speech reception threshold
• Vietnamese

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Thao Nguyen who served as our interpreter for this study and also all the participants who helped us with this study. These findings were presented at the 33rd World Congress of Audiology held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada during September 18–21, 2016.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

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