Development of a Turkish Monosyllabic Word Recognition Test for Adults

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study was to develop a Turkish-specific speech recognition test, considering phonemic balance, homogeneity, and familiarity criteria. MATERIALS and METHODS:The most frequently used Turkish monosyllabic words were selected from the corpus. Thirty-six young adults with normal hearing were divided into two groups and asked to listen to words from the word pool; the words were given twice at six different intensity levels. The least and most frequently known words were identified and eliminated in order to provide homogeneity. Three word lists, each composed of 50 phonemically balanced words, were developed to be used in the tests. These lists were divided into two according to the phonemic balance criteria. RESULTS:No statistically significant difference was found among the word lists. Furthermore, the internal reliability of each list was analyzed using KR-20 and was found to be above 98% for all lists. CONCLUSION:The lists derived from the Turkish language were ascertained to be appropriate for use. As a result of using the developed lists to test individuals with various auditory pathologies, it will be possible to assess the lists' capability to distinguish pathological cases according to the location of the pathology.

Phonemic analysis of Turkish monosyllabic word lists used for speech discrimination (word recognition) tests

“…In this study, one of seven published Turkish word lists were excluded because they were composed of only words with two syllables [18] (spondees), and remaining six lists [15][16][17][19][20][21][22] were analyzed for the following parameters:…”

“…Akşit List Serpil Mungan Durankaya et al [21,22] Akşit, 1997 Cevanşir, 1966Cevanşir, /1967 composed of meaningful separate Turkish words without any repetition.…”

“…[20][21][22] They claimed their lists to be better for SDS testing because they had better phonemic/phonetic balance for Turkish language and were standardized for type and degree of hearing loss. Further, Mungan [21] and Mungan Durankaya et al [22] chose the words in respect to familiarity test.…”

“…The common point of Akşit and Izmir lists [20][21][22] was that these lists were composed of only words in CVC format as in the phonetically balanced word lists in English. [4][5][6][7][8][9] It has been shown that CVC is the major single-word format in Turkish.…”

“…The sub-lists should be compatible with the phonemic balance of the standard spoken language and presented to the subjects with true pronunciation with proper suprasegmental features. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] We previously reported that seven studies, including eight Turkish word lists that were developed for speech audiology, were published in Turkish [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] (Table 1). [23] The studies presented their clinic efficiency even if some of them have not been in routine use of audiology departments.…”