REPORTED VOICE DIFFICULTIES IN STUDENT TEACHERS: A QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY

ABSTRACT:

As professional voice users, teachers are particularly at risk of abusing their voices and developing voice disorders during their career. In spite of this, attention paid to voice care in the initial training and further professional development of teachers is unevenly spread and insufficient. This article describes a questionnaire survey of 171 trainee teachers at the end of their Postgraduate Certificate in Education year that included the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) ( Jacobson et al., 1997 ). The survey aimed to identify the prevalence and types of voice problems experienced by students during their teaching practice and to relate these to previous history and to the area of the curriculum they were teaching. The analysis suggests that over a third of trainees suffer from voice difficulties on teaching practice and that one student in 12 was classified as having a moderate handicap as defined by the VHI. Trends of symptoms particular to individual curricular areas appear to be a fruitful area for further study.

Keywords:

• teacher education
• PGCE
• voice disorder
• Voice Handicap Index

6. Acknowledgement

We should like to thank Andy Kempe and Tracey Pinchbeck for supporting this project, as well as all the PGCE students who participated.

Notes

¹ 75 per cent of respondents were female. The mean age was 27.0 years (range, 21–55), with male students (M = 29.4 years) significantly older than females (M = 26.2) (F (1,159) = 6.99, p = .009, eta squared = .042). The age distribution is heavily positively skewed with 55 per cent of students being 24 or younger. Their subject areas were: Art and Design (18.8 per cent), Drama (10.9 per cent), English (12.1 per cent), History (5.5 per cent), Information and Communication Technology (9.7 per cent), Mathematics (8.5 per cent), Modern Foreign Languages (8.5 per cent), Music (6.1 per cent), Physical Education (5.5 per cent) and Science (14.5 per cent).

² In the order they occur, the statements are: My voice makes it difficult for people to hear me (F); I run out of air when I talk (P); People have difficulty understanding me in a noisy room (F); The sound of my voice varies throughout the day (P); My family has difficulty hearing me when I call them throughout the house (F); I use the phone less often then I would like (F); I'm tense when talking with others because of my voice (E); I tend to avoid groups of people because of my voice (F); People seem irritated with my voice (E); People ask, ‘What's wrong with your voice?’ (P); I speak with friends, neighbours or relatives less often because of my voice (F); People ask me to repeat myself when speaking face-to-face (F); My voice sounds creaky and dry (P); I feel as though I have to strain to produce voice (P); I find other people don't understand my voice problem (E); My voice difficulties restrict my personal and social life (F); The clarity of my voice is unpredictable (P); I try to change my voice to sound different (P); I feel left out of conversations because of my voice (F); I use a great deal of effort to speak (P); My voice is worse in the evening (P); My voice problem causes me to lose income (F); My voice problem upsets me (E); I am less outgoing because of my voice problem (E); My voice makes me feel handicapped (E); My voice ‘gives out’ on me in the middle of speaking (P); I feel annoyed when people ask me to repeat (E); I feel embarrassed when people ask me to repeat (E); My voice makes me feel incompetent (E); I'm ashamed of my voice problem (E).