Studying and Addressing Listening Levels of Children in a Rural Poverty-Stricken Area

This chapter reports the work of a teacher educator/researcher as she supported teacher candidates to assess and tutor struggling readers in a public school in a rural, economically depressed, yet diverse, area. Alerted by the scores for listening comprehension the candidates were finding over several semesters that indicated little reading potential for the students being assessed, she worked with the school's principal to reassess one group of students at the end of the year to determine growth, and therefore potential success, of the school's new intervention program in raising listening levels. No significant results were found, yet school personnel made no change in their program to address it. The teacher educator/researcher subsequently followed the implications of the research to provide instruction in listening skills to students in two other schools. The chapter closes with a discussion of what may truly make a difference in developing listening skills for the children in this community beyond a commercial program.

Analysis of the Actual One-Month Usage of Portable Listening Devices in College Students

Although contemporary researchers are concerned about overexposure of portable listening devices (PLD) for adolescents and young adults who often prefer listening to music at high levels for a long time, many of these studies have focused on either comparing sound pressure levels of various kinds of earphones or evaluating the recognition of noise-included hearing loss and listening habits through surveys. Further still, current criteria were developed for occupational noise-induced hearing loss, so there are only a few published guidelines for hearing insults due to recreational noise exposure. The present study, therefore, measures actual listening levels and PLD time in college students using a real-time measurement system and applying that gathered scientific data to the internationally recommended noise exposure standards. Thirty-four college students were asked to listen to music similar to their daily lifestyles for 4-weeks. After installing the application, the Google account that linked to the user’s mobile phone was logged into the server communication. When a subject listened to music, the average and maximum listening levels and listening time could then be recognized as his or her Google account ID and stored in the database for analysis. User data was measured at 1-s intervals and delivered to the main server system every 5 s. The data were analyzed as LZeq for mean levels and LCpeak for maximum levels, and also for PLD use time. The mean of the preferred listening level was 68–70 dB SPL for 4 weeks with long enough break times. That is, the listening levels of college students were not high enough to induce instant hearing loss when they used PLD. However, there was a large individual difference in the listening levels and use times. When applied to three recommended noise exposure criteria, the number of exceeded subjects also differed from 0 to 56.72% depending on the criterion. We thus suggest that appropriate and standardized criteria for music-induced hearing loss might be proposed for recreational PLD users.

Academic Listening Skills of the International University Students in Turkey

The number of international university students in Turkey is growing, thus more research is needed on teaching Turkish as an academic language and on academic literacy. This study aims to investigate (i) the international students’ views of the difficulties of the academic language skills, (ii) the efficacy level of the skills for their academic success, (iii) the academic listening and academic literacy status of the students, and (iv) the relationship between academic listening levels with some variables. In order to analyse the self-efficacy perceptions of the students, the data were collected by using the Turkish adaptation (Cronbach’s alpha value =0.943) of the Academic Listening Self-rating Questionnaire (ALSAQ), developed by Aryadoust and Goh (2017) and adopted by Ellialtı and Batur (2021). The questionnaire consists of 39 items that embody six factors. These factors are lecture structure, cognitive processing skills, linguistic components and prosody, relating input to other materials, memory and concentration, and note-taking. In the study, the participants were 221 international students studying at various academic programs in 33 state universities in Turkey. The data were analysed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) program. The results of the study showed that (i) listening is an easy skill for students to develop, (ii) listening is important for the students’ academic success, (iii) out of 39 items, 13 aspects were not at a good level in academic listening, and (iv) academic listening levels of the international students were not significantly different in terms of their gender, study area, and the number of the known languages.

Perceptual Benefits of Extended Bandwidth Hearing Aids With Children: A Within-Subject Design Using Clinically Available Hearing Aids

Purpose The aim of the study was to investigate the achieved audibility with clinically available, modern, high-end, behind-the-ear hearing aids fitted using the Desired Sensation Level v5.0 child prescription for a clinical sample of children with hearing impairment and the effect of the extended bandwidth provided by the hearing aids on several outcome measures. Method The achieved audibility was measured using the maximum audible output frequency method. Twenty-eight children (7–17 years old) with mild to severe hearing losses completed this study. Two hearing aid conditions were fitted for each participant: an extended bandwidth condition, which was fitted to targets as closely as possible, and a restricted bandwidth condition, for which aided output was restricted above 4.5 kHz. Consonant discrimination in noise, subjective preference, aided loudness growth, and preferred listening levels were evaluated in both conditions. Results The extended bandwidth hearing aid fittings provided speech audibility above 4.5 kHz for all children, with an average maximum audible output frequency of 7376 Hz ( SD = 1669 Hz). When compared to a restricted bandwidth, the extended bandwidth condition led to an improvement of 5.4% for consonant discrimination in noise scores, mostly attributable to /s/, /z/, and /t/ phoneme perception. Aided loudness results and preferred listening levels were not significantly different across bandwidth conditions; however, 65% of the children indicated a subjective preference for the extended bandwidth. Conclusion The study suggests that providing the full bandwidth available, with modern, behind-the-ear hearing aids, leads to improved audibility, when compared to restricted bandwidth hearing aids, and that it leads to beneficial outcomes for children who use hearing aids, fitted to the Desired Sensation Level v5.0 child prescription, without causing significant increases in their loudness perception.

Acceptable Noise Level Stability Over a One-Year Period of Time

Background The acceptable noise level (ANL) is a measure of willingness to listen to speech in the presence of background noise and is thought to be related to success with amplification. To date, ANLs have only been assessed over short periods of time, including within a session and over a 3-week and 3-month time period. ANL stability over longer periods of time has not been assessed. Purpose The purpose was to examine the stability of ANL over a 1-year time period. Research Design A repeated-measures, longitudinal study was completed. Study Sample Thirty young adults with normal hearing served as participants. The participants were tested at two different sites. Data Collection and Analysis Two trials of most comfortable listening levels (MCLs), background noise levels (BNLs), and ANLs were assessed for each participant during three experimental sessions: at 0 months, 6 months, and 1 year. Results Two-way repeated-measures analysis of variances revealed no significant change in MCLs, BNLs, or ANLs within a session or over a 1-year time period. These results indicate that ANLs remain stable for 1 year in listeners with normal hearing. Conclusions The finding that the ANL is stable over a longer period of time supports the theory that the ANL is an inherent trait of the listener and mediated at in the central auditory nervous system.

Dynamic Spatial Responsiveness in Concert Halls

In musical perception, a proportion of the reflected sound energy arriving at the ear is not consciously perceived. Investigations by Wettschurek in the 1970s showed the detectability to be dependent on the overall loudness and direction of arrival of reflected sound. The relationship Wettschurek found between reflection detectability, listening level, and direction of arrival correlates well with the subjective progression of spatial response during a musical crescendo: from frontal at pianissimo, through increasing apparent source width, to a fully present room acoustic at forte. “Dynamic spatial responsiveness” was mentioned in some of the earliest psychoacoustics research and recent work indicates that it is a key factor in acoustical preference. This article describes measurements of perception thresholds made using a binaural virtual acoustics system—these show good agreement with Wettschurek’s results. The perception measurements indicate that the subjective effect of reflections varies with overall listening level, even when the reflection level, delay, and direction relative to the direct sound are maintained. Reflections which are perceptually fused with the source may at louder overall listening levels become allocated to the room presence. An algorithm has been developed to visualize dynamic spatial responsiveness—i.e., which aspects of a three-dimensional (3D) Room Impulse Response would be detectable at different dynamic levels—and has been applied to measured concert hall impulse responses.

The Efficacy of Using Liulishuo for Spoken English Ability—Taking the Practice of Liulishuo in North China Electric Power University (Baoding) as an Example

This research aims to verify the effectiveness and practicability of Liulishuo, an English-learning APP, in improving college students’ oral English. The research adopts different student groups according to their different listening levels, and compares the scores of the pre- and post-practice tests of the control groups and the feedback analysis of the two sessions. The research results showed an upward trend, which proved the efficacy and practicability of Liulishuo in improving students’ oral English.

Can Self-Reported Personal Audio System Volume Predict Actual Listening Levels in Young Adults?

Most young adults report using personal audio systems (PAS) with earphones as part of their daily activities. PAS exposure is intermittent and research examining the levels these young adults are listening to is increasing. On average, preferred listening levels are below what would be considered at risk in an occupational setting.The purpose of this study was to evaluate how two questions predicted preferred listening level in young adults with normal hearing; specifically, whether these young adults could identify if they listen at a high level or not.One hundred and sixty young adults (111 women, 49 men) with normal hearing completed a questionnaire that had questions about PAS listening habits and then had preferred listening level assessed using a probe microphone system while listening to 1 hour of music through earphones.Otoscopy, tympanometry, and pure-tone thresholds were completed in a randomly determined test ear. As part of the Risk Factors Survey, two closed-set questions were completed. First, “For a typical day, what is the most common volume used during this day?” with the following response options “Low,” “Medium/Comfortable,” “Loud,” or “Very Loud.” And second, “Do you listen to your personal music system at a volume where you…” with the following response options “Easily hear people,” “Have a little trouble hearing people,” “Have a lot of trouble hearing people,” or “Cannot hear people.” Using a probe microphone, chosen listening level (A-weighted, diffuse-field correction and a conversion to free-field equivalent [L DFeq]) was calculated over 1 hour while the participant listened to music with earphones. Sensitivity and specificity were determined to see how well young adults could identify themselves as listening at a high level (>85 dBA) or not. Linear regression analyses were performed to determine the amount of variance explained by the two survey questions as predictors of measured L DFeq.Almost half of the participants reported a longest single use of a PAS as <1 hour daily and more than half reported listening at a medium/comfortable volume and had a little trouble hearing people. Mean L DFeq was 72.5 dBA, with young adult men having a significantly higher mean L DFeq (76.5 dBA) compared with young adult women (70.8 dBA). Sensitivity was 88.9% and specificity was 70.6% for the question asking about volume on a typical day. For the question asking about being able to hear other people while listening to music sensitivity was 83.3% and specificity was 82.5%. Two variables, listening volume on a typical day and sex, accounted for 28.4% of the variability associated with L DFeq; the answer to the question asking about being able to hear others and sex accounted for 22.8% of the variability associated with L DFeq.About 11% of young adults in the present study listen to a PAS with earphones at a high level (>85 dBA) while in a quiet background. The participants who do report listening at a high level, however, do well at self-reporting this risk behavior in survey questions.

Consumer-Grade Headphones for Children: Limited Effectiveness of “Level Limiters” When Used With Portable or Home Media Players

Consumer-grade headphones for children are frequently packaged or marketed with labels claiming incorporation of an output-level-limiting function. Six pairs of headphones, sold separately from devices with audio interfaces, were selected either from online recommendations or from “best rated” with a large online retailer, the opinions being expressed in 2018 to early 2019. The acoustic outputs in response to an internationally standardized test signal were measured through the ears of a head-and-torso simulator and referenced to equivalent A-weighted diffuse-field sound pressure levels. The headphones were tested with a variety of music capable sources found in a domestic environment, such as a mobile phone, tablets, laptop computer, and a home “hi-fi” CD player. To maintain likely homogeneity of the audio interface, the computer-based platforms were manufactured by either Apple™ or certified Android devices. One of the two Bluetooth-linked headphones exhibited level limiting with low distortion (i.e., a compression ratio well in excess of unity). None of the devices wired directly to an audio output performed distortionless level limiting: “limiting” was implemented by a reduction of sensitivity or mechanical limitations, so could be called “soft limiting.” When driven by a laptop or CD player, some were still capable of producing output levels well in excess of “safe-listening” levels of 85 dB(A). Packaging labels were frequently ambiguous and imprecise.

Acceptable Noise-Level Stability Over a One-Year Period of Time

Background: The acceptable noise level (ANL) is a measure of willingness to listen to speech in thepresence of background noise and is thought to be related to success with amplification. To date, ANLshave only been assessed over short periods of time, including within a session and over a three-week andthree-month time period. ANL stability over longer periods of time has not been assessed.<br />Purpose: The purpose was to examine the stability of ANL over a one-year time period.<br />Research Design: A repeated-measures, longitudinal study was completed.<br />Study Sample: Thirty young adults with normal hearing served as participants. The participants weretested at two different sites.<br />Data Collection and Analysis: Two trials of most comfortable listening levels (MCLs), background noiselevels (BNLs), and ANLs were assessed for each participant during three experimental sessions: at0 months, six months, and one year.<br />Results: Two-way repeated-measures analysis of variances revealed no significant change in MCLs,BNLs, or ANLs within a session or over a one-year time period. These results indicate that ANLs remainstable for one year in listeners with normal hearing.<br />Conclusions: The finding that the ANL is stable over a longer period of time supports the theory that theANL is an inherent trait of the listener and mediated at in the central auditory nervous system.<br />