A survey of narrative listening behaviors in 8-13-year-old children

Leisure reading confers significant benefits to children in both social and academic domains. However, the number of children who read for pleasure is decreasing and has been recently shown to drop off significantly between the ages of 8 and 9. Despite the rising popularity of audiobooks and podcasts, research on children listening to spoken stories remains in its infancy. Thus, the present study explores how children engage with these novel media. Fifty-two parents of children aged 8-13 years completed an online survey which asked about their children’s listening habits. Results showed that 74% of children listen to spoken stories, with the vast majority (92.5%) listening at least 1-2 times a week. While the survey revealed children are indeed engaging with both podcasts and audiobooks, being read aloud to continues to be the most popular format for story listening in this age group (77.4% of listeners). Across platforms, the genre most frequently listened to was fantasy stories (84.9%; more detailed descriptions of popular themes and sub-themes are described). In sum, access to technology is becoming an increasingly important part of children’s lives. The data described here provide a timely perspective and provide a basis for informed studies of listening engagement in children.

Listening in on the Neighbors: The Reception of German and Austrian Radio in Cold War Czechoslovakia

In 1966, a Radio Free Europe (RFE) report estimated that seven in ten Czechs and Slovaks listened to Radio Vienna, making it the most popular foreign station in Czechoslovakia. Yet conventional narratives of Western radio in socialist central Europe highlight the role played by runner-up RFE. By focusing on the practice of listening to German-language radio in Czechoslovakia between 1945 and 1969, this article shows that cross-border, German-language listening mattered not only between the Germanies, but also in central Europe, where listening habits were shaped by the region's multilingual heritage. In addition to highlighting German's significance as a language of regional communication, the article reveals the importance of cross-border contacts and the significance of light entertainment in Cold War central Europe. Rather than separating listeners out by citizenship, foreign radio listening fostered solidarities that cut across national boundaries and divided people by generation, geography, class, and technical dexterity instead.

Music Recommendation System using Machine Learning Algorithms

Music рlаys аn imроrtаnt rоle in humаn lifestyles. Humans рrefers tо hear tо musiс/songs mоre оften thаn аbig apple оther pursuit. With internet teсhnоlоgies, large quantity оf musiс соntent hold musiс оf several genres hаs beсоme’s eаsily аccessible tо milliоns оf user аrоund whole wоrld. Musiс group sinсe deсаde аnd соmрgrowing оf many genres оf musiс is accessible. The mаjоr diffiсulties thаt customer fасe is tо choose аррrорriаte song/musiс frоm suсh big collection of music. The objective оf our рrоjeсt wаs tо reсоmmend sоngs tо customers built exclusively оn their listening habits, with nо knowledge аbоut the musiс. Musiс аррliсаtiоns аre аttemрting tо imрrоve their reсоmmendаtiоn structures in оrder tо оffer their customers the quality роssible listening exрerienсe аnd keeр them оn their рlаtfоrm. For better reсоmmendаtiоns, view аnаlysis will be рerfоrm оn the lyriсs оf sоng and the use of rаndоm-fоrest аlgоrithm will be use fоr сlаssified the song lines intо vаriоus саtegоry (hаррy, sаd).

The Investigation of the Listening Strategies Teachers Instruct and the Listening Strategies Students Use

When people learn a new kind of language, the listening ability is the first ability people will encounter. Listening ability will also influence people to speak a new type of language fluently and correctly. This research aimed to determine the relationship between teachers' listening strategies and the listening strategies students use. Moreover, this research also intended to investigate what kind of listening strategies students usually use when practicing English listening. In this study, the researcher again examined the listening strategies teachers usually instruct during the class. The participants of the study were all freshmen of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages, University of central Taiwan with a certain level of English listening ability. The participants were going to fill out a questionnaire about their English listening habits. After analyzing the data, the researcher revealed final findings that indicated differences between teachers' listening strategies and the listening strategies students use. Teachers preferred to combine different materials and knowledge when they were in the listening class. Moreover, students tended to choose the materials that they are interested to improve their English listening after the course. Moreover, teachers also facilitate students with methods to enhance their English listening skills after class.

Objective Measurement of Listening Device Use and Its Relation to Hearing Acuity

Objectives To examine whether adolescents exceed recommended noise exposure limits when using personal listening devices (PLDs) and to investigate the relationship between objectively measured PLD use and hearing thresholds Study Design Cross-sectional study. Setting This study was embedded within an ongoing prospective birth cohort study in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Data were collected from May 2017 to September 2019. Methods A smartphone application was developed to measure daily noise exposure from PLDs. Listening habits were monitored among 314 adolescents with a mean age of 13 years 7 months (SD, 5 months), of whom 51.6% were male. Hearing acuity was measured by pure tone audiometry, and tympanometry was performed in both ears. Results Within the study group, 2.2% adolescents exceeded the recommended daily noise dose (85 dBA as an 8-hour time-weighted average) among all days when the application was active and 9.9% when among only the listening days. No significant correlation was found between the daily noise dose from PLDs and pure tone thresholds. Conclusions The majority of adolescents exhibited listening habits that could be considered safe. As noise-induced hearing loss develops slowly over time, it could be that the effects of PLD use on hearing are not evident yet in this young population with a relatively short duration of PLD use.

Shifting Listening Niches: Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The term “listening niche” refers to the contexts in which people listen to music including what music they are listening to, with whom, when, where, and with what media. The first experiment investigates undergraduate students’ music listening niches in the initial COVID-19 lockdown period, 4 weeks immediately after the campus shut down abruptly. The second experiment explores how returning to a hybrid semester, the “new normal,” further affected these listening habits. In both experiments, the participants provided a list of their most frequently listened-to songs during the respective period of time. From these, they identified one song that seemed most associated with this period, their “signature song,” and stated why this song seemed relevant. These reasons were coded on nine underlying themes. Three clusters were found to underlie the themes: (1) emotional responses (2) memory associations, and (3) discovery of new music. We identified songs and reasons for selecting them that represented the three clusters and related these to the lyrical content. Compared to before the pandemic, participants in both experiments report listening more in general and on Spotify, but there were no differences in listening between lockdown and the new normal. Whom they were listening with shifted overtime from family members to significant others and finally to other friends and roommates. These results demonstrate how students listen to and find new music that is meaningful to them during this unprecedented pandemic.

A smartphone application to objectively monitor music listening habits in adolescents

Background Listening to music through personal listening devices (PLDs) has become more prevalent during last decades. The aim of this study was to evaluate music listening habits through PLDs in adolescents with a smartphone application, and to assess the accuracy of self-reported listening habits. Methods This study was embedded in the Generation R Study, a population-based prospective birth cohort in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. A smartphone application for Android operating systems was developed to objectively monitor music listening habits for a period of 35 days. A postal questionnaire was used to subjectively assess listening habits. The level of agreement between the objectively measured and self-reported listening habits were evaluated using weighted kappa coefficients. Data were collected from May 2017 to March 2019. Results A total of 311 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years were included, of whom 237 (76.2%) completed the postal questionnaire. The results of the smartphone application showed that the median listening frequency was 2.1 days a week (IQR 1.0–3.4), the median listening time 21.1 min a day (IQR 9.1–53.7), and the mean listening level 54.5% (SD 18.1%). There was a slight to fair agreement between the objectively measured, and self-reported listening habits according to the weighted kappa coefficients (k = 0.179 to 0.364). Conclusions The results of the current study suggest that self-reported measures of listening habits are not always accurate. We consider a smartphone application to monitor listening habits of added value in future research investigating the possible damaging effects of PLDs on hearing acuity. Graphical abstract

Self-reported hearing status and audiometric thresholds among college students using headphones

Purpose: The study aims to investigate headphone listening habits of college-going students and for those using headphones, correlate self-reported hearing status with average audiometric hearing thresholds. Method: Headphone listening habits and awareness of adverse effects of the same was profiled in college-going students using a questionnaire distributed through online platform. Hearing thresholds were then compared for those with and without self-report of hearing difficulty. 341 responses were obtained from students between 17 and 23 years of age. For the second part of the study, a convenience sample of 30 willing students from among these 341 was selected. Pure tone thresholds were obtained for various frequencies with a high frequency audiometer. PTA (average of 500, 1000, 2000 Hz) and HFPTA (average of 4000, 6000, 8000, 10000 Hz) were calculated for both the ears and compared for those with and without reported hearing difficulty. Results: 78% students reported headphone usage for less than 3 hours per day, while 22% reported usage for more than 3 hours per day. 77% respondents were aware that listening to loud sounds can alter hearing sensitivity, but many (54.83%) did not have awareness about the minimum safe hours of listening. There was a weak positive correlation between self-reported hearing difficulty and poor ear HFPTA (r = 0.2304). Conclusion: Majority of students used insert earphones even after knowing the adverse effect of the same. There was a weak correlation found between the self-reported hearing problems and audiometric hearing thresholds. Implication: More awareness is needed about the ill effects of headphone usage amongst the young teenage population. Proper counseling and management strategies are required for people who report difficulty in hearing.