Noise levels in an urban Asian school environment

Abstract

Background noise is known to adversely affect speech perception and speech recognition. High levels of background noise in school classrooms may affect student learning, especially for those pupils who are learning in a second language. The current study aimed to determine the noise level and teacher speech-to-noise ratio (SNR) in Hong Kong classrooms. Noise level was measured in 146 occupied classrooms in 37 schools, including kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools and special schools, in Hong Kong. The mean noise levels in occupied kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and special school classrooms all exceeded recommended maximum noise levels, and noise reduction measures were seldom used in classrooms. The measured SNRs were not optimal and could have adverse implications for student learning and teachers’ vocal health. Schools in urban Asian environments are advised to consider noise reduction measures in classrooms to better comply with recommended maximum noise levels for classrooms.

The Effect of School Design on Users’ Responses: A Systematic Review (2008–2017)

“…Considering all the selected studies, the most studied outcome variable was "learning," found in 62 studies (also in terms of "performance," "education," "teaching," "learning environment" on the whole), followed by studies that presented "wellbeing," tested 14 times (also in terms of "comfort," "health," and the other outcome variables examined in other studies, "satisfaction" in five studies, "socialization" in seven studies, "place identity" in two studies) (in particular, "learning" has been operationalized in terms of individual level score in task performance (e.g., [42,43], a specific measurement scale (e.g., [44,45]), teachers' and students' observation and/or interviews (e.g., [46,47]), acoustic perception (e.g., [48,49]), and visual and audio data collected (e.g., [50]). As concerns "wellbeing," it has been operationalized through specific measurement scales (e.g., assessing parental involvement, contacts with friends, and general well-being: [51]; or physical comfort: [52,53], students' and teachers' interviews (see [54]), speech measurement through objective parameters of noise and sound (see [55]), and observation of students' posture [56]).…”

Tone perception in Mandarin-speaking school age children with otitis media with effusion

“…However, at listening conditions which are more adverse than -9 dB SNR, tone recognition performance in OME-B group children degrades more rapidly than for their peers with normal hearing or minor hearing loss. Previous studies on classroom acoustics showed that the background noise in many primary schools may be more adverse than -9 dB SNR [ 37 , 53 ]. Considering that monosyllabic lexical tones in a picture identification task are much easier than words or sentences to recognize under the same listening environment, it is not unreasonable to conclude that children with OME are negatively affected by typical classroom noise to a larger extent than children with normal hearing.…”

“…Despite being a frequently encountered paediatric group in clinical otology/audiology settings, children with OME-related hearing loss have not been investigated in terms of tone perception. Little is known about their possible difficulties with tone perception, especially when noise is present—as it is in typical classrooms [ 37 – 39 ]. Therefore the purpose of the present study was to describe monaural tone perception in school age children with OME-related hearing loss, to evaluate the interaction of noise, tone type, age, and hearing status on tone perception, and to assess the application of the hierarchical clustering method in profiling children with OME from the perspective of tone perception ability.…”

Kenaikan Tingkat Kebisingan Ruangan Kelas Akibat Pengaruh Penyejuk Udara dan Lalu Lintas

“…Salah satu penelitian pada sebuah universitas menarik kesimpulan bahwa standar 35 dBA di ruang kelas yang kosong dapat dicapai tetapi tingkat kebisingan meningkat secara signifikan ketika kebisingan akibat sistem ventilasi muncul [6]. Kebisingan pada kegiatan akademik yang disebabkan oleh kebisingan latar belakang (background noise) ditengarai dapat mempengaruhi persepsi ucapan dan pengenalan suara [14]. Kondisi ruang kelas sebagai sarana komunikasi verbal dengan tingkat kebisingan tinggi dapat memperburuk komunikasi sehingga menurunkan efisiensi proses belajar mengajar.…”