Teachers ‘need voice training’ for sake of pupils

Philip Parkin, general secretary of the Professional Association of Teachers, addressed this year's annual conference on 1 August and concluded, 'the care and the use of the voice should be an essential and mandatory component of all initial teacher training.'

His comments were related to important evidence-based research undertaken by Jemma Rogerson, senior specialist SLT, Chorley and South Ribble PCT.

Jemma's research, investigating the effect of dysphonic teachers' voices on children's processing of spoken language, revealed that any form of vocal impairment is detrimental to children's speech perception and is therefore likely to have a negative educational effect.

Her study involved testing 107 children of similar ages and socio-economic backgrounds. Each child listened and watched a video recording in a control (normal) voice, mildly dysphonic and severely dysphonic voice.

Following each recording, the children answered six multiple-choice questions. The children's performance on tasks was significantly better in the control voice than in either the mildly or severely dysphonic voices, regardless of age, gender, educational institution and IQ.

According to Jemma, explanations for differing performance can be drawn from models of speech perception.

"The impaired voice seems to place additional demands on the listener as more resources are directed to perceptual processing, thus reducing processing capacity for the comprehension of information," Jemma says.

She adds, "There is a vast body of literature on the prevalence, symptom diversity, psychological and economical problems of teacher vocal impairment."

"However, this is the first study to address in detail the educational effect on the children who listen to their dysphonic teachers. It is hoped it will add weight to support the implementation of compulsory vocal training on all teacher training programmes."

Jemma comments that appropriate policy is needed to provide advice and guidance at the point of training to ensure students of education are equipped vocally to enter their chosen profession.

The research has been recently reported in national and international media, demonstrating this is an important topic, which needs further investigation.

"Hopefully, this research and the attention it has received means the future for preventative vocal care is bright."

Reference:
Rogerson J, Dodd B. Is There an Effect of Dysphonic Teachers' Voices on Children's Processing of Spoken Language? Journal of Voice 2005; 19:1, 47-60.