Academic literature on the topic 'Chosen listening levels'

Purpose The objective of this study was to describe chosen listening levels (CLLs) for recorded music for listeners with hearing loss in aided and unaided conditions. Method The study used a within-subject, repeated-measures design with 13 adult hearing-aid users. The music included rock and classical samples with different amounts of audio-industry compression limiting. CLL measurements were taken at ear level (i.e., at input to the hearing aid) and at the tympanic membrane. Results For aided listening, average CLLs were 69.3 dBA at the input to the hearing aid and 80.3 dBA at the tympanic membrane. For unaided listening, average CLLs were 76.9 dBA at the entrance to the ear canal and 77.1 dBA at the tympanic membrane. Although wide intersubject variability was observed, CLLs were not associated with audiometric thresholds. CLLs for rock music were higher than for classical music at the tympanic membrane, but no differences were observed between genres for ear-level CLLs. The amount of audio-industry compression had no significant effect on CLLs. Conclusion By describing the levels of recorded music chosen by hearing-aid users, this study provides a basis for ecologically valid testing conditions in clinical and laboratory settings.

In the process of teaching listening, anxiety is believed as a negative factor contributing to the students’ poor listening comprehension and quite possibly the affective factor that the most persistently hinders the learning process. Thus, investigating its existence and delving its factors become salient in order to help the students overcome their listening learning barriers. This present study attempts to depict the condition of the students’ listening anxiety in an Academic Listening (AL) class in an Indonesian tertiary context. 20-items of Foreign Language Listening Anxiety’s (hereafter, FLLA) questionnaire were administered to 97 students taking that course. Having finished analyzing the levels of students’ listening anxiety, in-depth interviews were conducted to four students who were considered having high listening anxiety to disclose the underlying factors. The research result revealed three pivotal issues; a) 54.6% of the students had a relatively high level of listening anxiety, 18.5% had moderate listening anxiety, and 26.8% had a low level of listening anxiety; b), 75% of the chosen measured items showed an extreme level of the students’ listening anxiety, and c) the major factor contributing the listening anxiety was inadequate listening proficiency involving the inability to deal with the rapid speech rate and range of lexical choices.

Nowadays, most learners, especially students at The Asian International School, have plenty of opportunities for learning English vocabulary from the earliest possible age. However, the students in general faced lots of difficulties in vocabulary learning. Thus, the study was conducted with the purpose to investigate to what extent extensive listening affected the students’ vocabulary learning and their listening habits. Eighty participants were chosen by using convenience sampling and divided into two groups: a control group and an experimental group. The two groups took a pretest to measure their vocabulary knowledge with Listening Vocabulary Levels Test. Then, besides studying the school’s formal English curriculum, the control group practiced intensive listening while the experimental group practiced extensive listening. All the participants were required to submit one listening journal each week to report what they have done as their listening habits. Finally, they took a posttest (Listening Vocabulary Levels Test) after 12 weeks practicing. The results showed that extensive listening could help to increase the participants’ receptive vocabulary knowledge significantly, including word meanings and word aural forms. Additionally, the more the participants practiced extensive listening, the higher improvement they somewhat had on receptive vocabulary knowledge. The participants tended to practice listening by using visual materials and self-selected materials in their listening habits. To sum up, extensive listening affected impressively the participants’ vocabulary learning that aspires for the study to propose suggestions for future studies so that administrators, teachers, and students could receive huge pedagogical implications of extensive listening.

AbstractMost 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.

This study tries to investigate the impact(s) of genre-based teaching (GBT) on Iranian EFL learners� listening proficiency as well as to discover if GBT equally affects the listening proficiency of EFL learners at different proficiency levels. To fulfill this objective, 84 EFL learners were chosen. They were divided into Group A and Group B. Groups A and B consisted of 40 and 44 participants, respectively. Group A was divided into experimental and control groups and performed two listening proficiency tests for pre and posttest. Findings of one-way ANCOVA revealed that experimental group performed better than the control group due to using GBI. As indicated by the proficiency test, Group B was also divided into proficient and less-proficient groups; each one performed two listening tests for pre and posttest. Consequences of one-way ANCOVA showed both groups enhanced from pretest to posttest, however; the proficient group performed outstandingly better than the less-proficient group. The results of this study generally demonstrated that GBT is a pivotal and fundamental factor for improving listening comprehension.

The three papers in this ‘suite’ have a special background and context. At the 2010 conference SoundActs in Aarhus the three panellists were each given the task to provide a paper with an analysis of the same sound object, thus exhibiting and contrasting different scholarly approaches to sound studies. The object was selected by Torben Sangild, who was familiar with the chosen context: the signature of the US radio programme and podcast Radiolab. The two other participants did not know the context and chose to analyse the sound object without further contextual investigation. This object was chosen for several reasons. First of all, it is brief (less than 17 seconds), which meant that it was possible to make a detailed analysis; at the same time, though, it is relatively complex, which means that it can accommodate three different analyses. It is a sound object with a global audience, taken from one of the most popular podcasts worldwide, accessible on the internet. Finally, it is a piece of functional sound design, rather than a work of art, which raises the question of context more clearly. The result is three rather different approaches: 1) a process analysis, observing analytical listening strategies towards the constructed object, 2) a vocal analysis, regarding the sound object as a polyphony of voices, and 3) a contextual analysis, framing the sound object as a radio signature. Ola Stockfelt analyses the sound object as something that is constructed via his own repeated listening process – as a scholarly-analytical analysis of the subjective act of creating meaning. He draws on presumptions and prejudices, demonstrating the impossibility of a purely structural listening. The analysis relates these hermeneutical reflections to formal musicological observations of harmony, timbre, space and rhythm in some detail. Ansa Lønstrup’s paper analyses the sound object as a polyphony of voices. Her analysis is inspired by two phenomenologists: Don Ihde, whose notion of ‘voice’ is understood in a more general sense as the voices of all things, and Lawrence Ferrara, who methodologically operates within tree levels of investigation: 1) the syntax, 2) the semantic and 3) the ontology level. Accordingly, this analysis is conducted, as if the sound object was performed by a vocal ensemble oscillating ‘between a musical and a speech act’. Torben Sangild’s paper focuses on the concrete function of the sound object as a radio signature. This prompts a generic analysis and a semantic model of radio signatures in general, eclectically employing formal, indexical, gestural, discursive and contextual levels of meaning. The analysis of the Radiolab signature focuses on the overall gesture of tension and release as well as the semantic elements in a constellation with the content and style of the radio programme. After the three individual contributions, a brief summary and conclusion will follow, answering any questions that may arise in the process.

This study aims to investigate the attempts of six EFL teachers at various colleges and faculties of Kuwait University to develop their EFL students’ oral skills. In a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews, the EFL teachers described their students’ levels of English as very good or good, but they needed to encourage their students to use their oral English widely so that they could, therefore, improve it to better levels. The qualitative method was chosen to get in-depth details and information about the individual experiences of the experienced teachers. The findings showed that the participants used various strategies and techniques, such as using supplementary materials, using drama, listening to tape recorders, working in language labs, having group discussions (with or against), etc. The data also revealed that the improvement of oral skills of EFL students at Kuwait University had been successfully achieved.

AbstractPrevious research in cochlear implant (CI) recipients with bilateral severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss showed improvements in speech recognition in noise using remote wireless microphone systems. However, to our knowledge, no previous studies have addressed the benefit of these systems in CI recipients with single-sided deafness.The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential improvement in speech recognition in noise for distant speakers in single-sided deaf (SSD) CI recipients obtained using the digital remote wireless microphone system, Roger. In addition, we evaluated the potential benefit in normal hearing (NH) participants gained by applying this system.Speech recognition in noise for a distant speaker in different conditions with and without Roger was evaluated with a two-way repeated-measures design in each group, SSD CI recipients, and NH participants. Post hoc analyses were conducted using pairwise comparison t-tests with Bonferroni correction.Eleven adult SSD participants aided with CIs and eleven adult NH participants were included in this study.All participants were assessed in 15 test conditions (5 listening conditions × 3 noise levels) each. The listening conditions for SSD CI recipients included the following: (I) only NH ear and CI turned off, (II) NH ear and CI (turned on), (III) NH ear and CI with Roger 14, (IV) NH ear with Roger Focus and CI, and (V) NH ear with Roger Focus and CI with Roger 14. For the NH participants, five corresponding listening conditions were chosen: (I) only better ear and weaker ear masked, (II) both ears, (III) better ear and weaker ear with Roger Focus, (IV) better ear with Roger Focus and weaker ear, and (V) both ears with Roger Focus. The speech level was fixed at 65 dB(A) at 1 meter from the speech-presenting loudspeaker, yielding a speech level of 56.5 dB(A) at the recipient's head. Noise levels were 55, 65, and 75 dB(A). Digitally altered noise recorded in school classrooms was used as competing noise. Speech recognition was measured in percent correct using the Oldenburg sentence test.In SSD CI recipients, a significant improvement in speech recognition was found for all listening conditions with Roger (III, IV, and V) versus all no-Roger conditions (I and II) at the higher noise levels (65 and 75 dB[A]). NH participants significantly benefited from the application of Roger in noise for higher levels, too. In both groups, no significant difference was detected between any of the different listening conditions at 55 dB(A) competing noise. There was also no significant difference between any of the Roger conditions III, IV, and V across all noise levels.The application of the advanced remote wireless microphone system, Roger, in SSD CI recipients provided significant benefits in speech recognition for distant speakers at higher noise levels. In NH participants, the application of Roger also produced a significant benefit in speech recognition in noise.

This paper investigates foreign language listening anxiety (FLLA) in line with social and interpersonal anxiety studies. Language-learning anxiety has been conceptualized as a unique, situation-specific entity, and recent research in second language acquisition (SLA) has examined anxiety with respect to such skill domains as reading and writing as well as in terms of spoken interaction. Too much emphasis on specificity, however, might have led researchers and practitioners to miss common features of anxiety as affective processes under tension. A Japanese translation of the Foreign Language Listening Anxiety Scale (FLLAS), which was created for Korean learners of English by Kim (2000), was administered to 452 Japanese learners. Data reduction through factor analysis indicated that this construct, as measured by the FLLAS, has three factors which were labeled Emotionality, Worry, andAnticipatory Fear. University major and gender were chosen as independent variables, and only the levels of the former were found to be significantly different in terms of one of the factors, Emotionality. Math students experienced more arousal of fear than social science students in this dimension of the FLLAS. 本論では、日本人大学生の英語のリスニングに関する不安感を因子分析と分散分析を用いて研究する。韓国語を母国語とする学習者向けに開発されたスケールを基にして作成した日本語版尺度を用い、この心理的概念の適切なモデルの構築を目指し、三つの因子を仮定する。また、専攻分野によって学生の不安感の構成にも統計的有意差が見られることも報告する。

The present study aims to see whether music (cheerful and sad) tuned to different frequencies (432 Hz vs. 440 Hz) cause different effects on the listener’s emotions. In the research, the effects of cheerful and sad music samples at different frequencies were examined within the framework of variables such as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), emotions felt and mood. The study was carried out with a total of 51 participants (31 women comprising 60.8% of the study group, and 20 men comprising 39.2% of the study group) who have not received music education. The average age of the participants is 22.19 (S = 1.08, range = 20-25). In the study, the activation levels of the autonomic nervous system were assessed using Heart Rate Variability (HRV), whereas the moods of the participants before listening music were assessed using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) scale. Finally, The Geneva Emotional Music Scales (GEMS) was used to assess the potential emotions and mood state to appear after listening music. All music samples used in the study (one cheerful and one sad per participant) were chosen by the relevant participant. The conversion of the samples recorded at 440 Hz tuning frequency, to 432 Hz was carried out with a Max/MSP patch designed specifically for the study. The findings of the study show that the cheerful and sad music tuned to different frequency levels (432 Hz vs. 440 Hz) do not induce significant variation in sympathetic and parasympathetic activation levels. However, regardless of the tuning, the participants who listened cheerful music reported higher levels of relaxation after listening. Moreover, again regardless of the tuning, according to GEMS results, the participants experienced higher levels of sublimity compared to unease, and also higher levels of unease compared to vitality. The analysis regarding cheerful music, in turn, found that the participants, this time, experienced higher levels of vitality compared to sublimity, and higher levels of sublimity compared to unease. In the most comprehensive analysis with no reference to the cheerful or sad character of the sample, the participants who listened 440 Hz pieces reported rather negative mood after listening music compared to the participants who listened 432 Hz pieces. Moreover, men were observed to report even higher levels of negative mood after listening 440 Hz pieces, compared to their mood after listening 432 Hz pieces. All the findings thus reached imply that different tunes lead to variation in reported moods, even though they do not bring about changes in sympathetic and parasympathetic activation levels. ​Extended English summary is in the end of Full Text PDF (TURKISH) file. Özet Bu çalışmanın amacı, 432 Hz ve 440 Hz frekanslara göre ayarlanmış müziklerin (neşeli ve hüzünlü) duygu oluşumunda bir fark yaratıp yaratmayacağını değerlendirmektir. Farklı frekanslardaki neşeli ve hüzünlü müzik örneklerinin yarattığı etkiler, Kalp Hızı Değişkenliği (KHD), hissedilen duygular ve duygu durumu gibi değişkenler çerçevesinde incelenmiştir. Araştırma, müzik eğitimi almayan 31'i (%60.8) kadın, 20'si (%39.2) erkek toplam 51 kişiyle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Katılımcıların genel yaş ortalaması 22.19’dur (S = 1.08, ranj = 20-25). Çalışmada otonom sinir sistemi aktivasyonunu değerlendirmek için Kalp Hızı Değişkenliği (KHD) ölçümü; müzik dinleme öncesi anlık duygu durumunu (mood) değerlendirmek için Duygu Durumu Profili Ölçeği (POMS) ve müzik dinleme sonrası oluşan muhtemel duyguları değerlendirmek için Cenova Duygu Müzik Ölçeği (GEMS) kullanılmıştır. Çalışmada kullanılan bütün müzik örnekleri (bir neşeli, bir hüzünlü) her bir katılımcının kendisi tarafından belirlenmiştir. 440 Hz akort frekansına göre kaydedilmiş örneklerin 432 Hz frekansa dönüştürülmesi çalışmaya özgü geliştirilmiş bir Max/MSP patch uygulaması ile yapılmıştır. Bulgular, farklı frekanslara (432 Hz ve 440 Hz) göre dinlenen neşeli ve hüzünlü müziklerin, sempatik ve parasempatik aktivasyon düzeyleri arasında anlamlı bir fark yaratmadığını göstermiştir. Ancak akort türünden bağımsız olarak, neşeli müzik dinleyen katılımcılar müzik dinleme sonrası daha fazla gevşeme hissettiklerini bildirmişlerdir. Bunun yanı sıra katılımcıların, akort türünden bağımsız olarak GEMS ölçeğine göre hüzünlü müzik dinleme sonrası yücelik (sublimity) duygusunu canlılık (vitality) ve huzursuzluk (unease) duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği; huzursuzluk duygusunu ise canlılık duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği belirlenmiştir. Neşeli müzik için yapılan analiz sonucunda katılımcıların neşeli müzik dinleme sonrası canlılık duygusunu yücelik ve huzursuzluk duygularından daha fazla hissettiği; yücelik duygusunu ise huzursuzluk duygusundan daha fazla hissettiği görülmüştür. En genel değerlendirmede müzik türünden bağımsız olarak, 440 Hz ile müzik dinleyen katılımcıların 432 Hz ile müzik dinleyen katılımcılara göre müzik dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumunun daha yüksek olduğu; ayrıca erkeklerin kadınlara göre 440 Hz müzikleri dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumunun 432 Hz müzikleri dinleme sonrası olumsuz duygu durumundan daha yüksek olduğu görülmüştür. Elde edilen tüm bulgular akort türünün sempatik ve parasempatik aktivasyon düzeyleri arasında bir farklılaşma yaratmasa da duygu durumu üzerinde bir farklılaşmaya neden olduğunu ima etmektedir.

The purpose of this research was to identify the influence of multiplayer online gaming on the acquisition of English as a foreign language. Means of items, modes, and standard deviations were analyzed and reported. The results of the survey reveal that online gaming has a significant positive influence on the use of English as most participants choose to communicate instead of remaining silent. Furthermore, a remarkable increase in listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills have been noted thanks to voice chat and text chat functions. Vocabulary acquisition also takes place through interpersonal communication among the players, who are also able to apply the new knowledge and transfer it to offline settings. Lastly, self-regulated learning, motivation, and confidence levels as well as the willingness to collaborate are positively influenced by the online gaming experiences of the learners.

Welcome to Camberwell, home of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London. In many ways Camberwell is typical of inner-city London: built-up, busy, and ethnically very diverse. It’s also an area of considerable poverty. In the 2004 Index of Multiple Deprivation—a government-sponsored survey of living standards across England—Camberwell was ranked at 6,327 out of 32,482. This sounds alright until you know that the most deprived area is ranked number 1 and the least deprived number 32,482. (Parts of the Anfield area of inner-city north Liverpool were officially deemed the most deprived place in England in 2004; the village of Oakley in rural Hampshire took place number 32,482.) Pictured opposite is the area’s main shopping street. Follow it far enough and it’ll lead you to the Thames, but the wide expanse of the river seems a very long way from the run-down, traffic-clogged, and people-thronged streets of Camberwell. What effect—if any—does an urban environment like this have on paranoia? To find out, we asked fifteen volunteers with strongly paranoid thoughts to walk down the Camberwell Road from the Institute, buy a newspaper, and come back. Afterwards they were given a range of psychological tests. Finally, their test scores were compared to those of fifteen other people, again all with pronounced paranoia, who’d simply stayed at the Institute listening to a relaxation tape. Did making the trip down the Camberwell Road increase the volunteers’ level of paranoia? Absolutely. And given the stressful nature of the environment that didn’t come as a surprise. (As we saw in Chapter 3, there’s a well-established link between stress, particularly in urban environments, and mental illness.) More intriguing though were the results of one particular psychological test: the beads task. In the beads task, participants are presented with two glass jars. One contains 85 orange beads and 15 black beads; the other contains 85 black and 15 orange. The beads have been mixed up in the jars. The researcher conducting the test chooses one of the jars (without telling the participant), and moves them both out of view.

The purpose of the study was to find out how enhanced learner autonomy techniques can influence students' professional communication skills, subject-specific knowledge, levels of motivation in studying the language and general satisfaction from the studies. The problem under investigation is if students should be allowed to choose materials for language input and if the teacher will be able to work out an appropriate didactic approach in developing students' grammar accuracy, vocabulary range, speaking, listening and writing skills. the expermental course was designed for students of economics. Students' responsibility, the use of online resources and students' freedom in selection of teaching materials are viewed as key elements of the approach. the methodology of the course is worked out on the basis of close teacher-student interactin in and out of class. The results indicate that despite the fact that the course was time-consuming for both teachers and students, there are some positive results in respect of increased proffessional vocabulary range, levels of motivation and cognition.