Changes in reverberation affect speech intelligibility within the classroom
- Autores: Maria Lúcia Gondim da Rosa Oiticica, Stelamaris Rolla Bertoli
- Localización: Proceedings of the ISRA 2007 Seville, Vol. 2, 2008 (Poster Session Communications), ISBN 9788469082676
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
Due to growing concern over the suitability of educational facilities, the importance of acoustics within schools has been widely discussed over the past few years. A number of papers have shown that reverberation and excessive noise degrade speech intelligibility, thus hindering the learning process. This paper was aimed at investigating speech intelligibility within a classroom by changing seating arrangement and reverberation time. The research was conducted at the State University of Campinas - São Paulo, Brazil, in a standard classroom occupied with 50% of students ontologically normal. Students were given speech intelligibility tests that used lists of language phrases found in audiological tests in Brazil. The speakers were both male and female. A more absorptive material was employed in one of the surfaces of the wall so as to change reverberation time. Seating arrangement was modified relative to the distribution of the acoustical material. The sound equipment was placed where the teacher would be and an approximate 65 dB(A) sound level was measured at the farthest point from the source. In order to assess the acoustical condition within the classroom, reverberation time (RT) and background noise levels were measured in many a situation (including with the students present).
