Voicing Periods in a Primary School Teacher

Abstract

Teachers form a large group of professional voice users and are thought to be at risk for voice problems than the general population. Primary school teachers report the common need to shout or raise the voice to make children heard. In a complete working day, the excessive vibration of vocal fold tissues due to loud or prolonged vocalization has been assumed to contribute to voice problems. There are relatively few studies focused on measuring the amount of voicing performed by speakers over time. Hence, the present study quantified the amount of voice use on a single workday and measured the changes, if any, in the acoustic parameters of voice [mean fundamental frequency (F0), standard deviation of fundamental frequency (SD F0), and mean jitter]. A primary school teacher of 32 years of age having twelve years of teaching experience participated in the study. The voice samples were recorded in a class room setting, the natural working environment of the teacher, with a portable, lightweight digital audio tape (DAT) recorder. The entire workday speech/voice sample (throughout the working hours) was recorded. Also, prolongation of vowel /a/ was recorded at four times of interval in the day - before the first class, after the first class, after lunch and after the last class. The external noise was removed by using CoolEdit software. The voicing (pitch) periods were measured using PRAAT software. Dr. Speech software was used to analyze F0, SD F0, and jitter at four different intervals of time. The voicing percentage was found to be around 31.46 % (i.e., 1 hour 49 minutes 48 seconds). F0, SD F0 and jitter increased from the first to the last recording. The results of the study throw light on vocal usage and its effect on voice by a primary school teacher who work with children on a entire workday.