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School teachers appear to have a greater prevalence of voice problems than the general population, yet classrooms are not designed with the safe use of teachers' voices in mind. In an effort to better understand the influence of classroom acoustic design on teachers' voice parameters measurements of teachers' voices in different classroom types have been made. An Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM) has been used to measure voice parameters (including the average voice sound pressure level, fundamental frequency and phonation time) directly from the skin vibrations in the neck, thus eliminating the effects of other noise sources in the environment. The rooms involved were acoustically benchmarked individually to enable relationships between the voice data and acoustic parameters, such as unoccupied ambient noise levels and reverberation times, to be investigated. The study data shows a positive correlation between unoccupied ambient noise levels and the average voice levels of the teachers, as well as between voice level and phonation time. There was no significant correlation in the study data between classroom reverberation times and voice levels or between voice level and fundamental frequency.

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Recent surveys indicate that approximately 60% of UK teachers experience voice problems during their career. This costs £15M annually in teacher absence and can have a significant human cost for those involved. This study investigated the impact of classroom acoustics on teachers’ voice levels to determine if acoustic modifications of classrooms could reduce the vocal load placed on teachers. Measurements of teachers’ voice levels were made using an ambulatory phonation monitor (APM), which measures voice parameters directly from skin vibrations on the neck. Simultaneous sound level meter measurements of various parameters were also carried out in the classrooms. The room acoustic parameters of the classrooms were measured separately to the APM measurements. Measurements have been taken in a range of classrooms as part of a pilot study. Results will be reported as to the effects of different acoustic environments in the classroom on the teachers' voice levels.

Many studies have suggested that teachers have a significantly higher rate of voice problems than the general population. In order to better understand the possible influences of room acoustics on different voice parameters, a study has been carried out by London South Bank University which involved measurements of voice parameters for teachers working in classrooms with varying acoustic conditions. Data relating to the voice, including the average speech sound level, fundamental frequency, and phonation percentage, were captured using an Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM) which measured directly from skin vibrations in the neck, thereby excluding the effects of other noise sources in the environment. The measured voice parameters were compared with the room acoustic data for the classrooms involved, which were surveyed separately from the voice measurements. In addition to the field measurements, an online questionnaire was undertaken with the support of two UK teacher trade unions. This was designed to gain further information on teachers’ experiences of voice problems and school acoustics in general and indicated that over 66% of the surveyed teachers had experienced voice problems during their career. This paper will present the results of the field measurements and questionnaire survey.