Optimizing acoustical conditions for speech intelligibility in classrooms

High speech intelligibility is imperative in classrooms where verbal communication is critical. However, the optimal acoustical conditions to achieve a high degree of speech intelligibility have previously been investigated with inconsistent results, and practical room-acoustical solutions to optimize the acoustical conditions for speech intelligibility have not been developed. This experimental study validated auralization for speech-intelligibility testing, investigated the optimal reverberation for speech intelligibility for both normal and hearing-impaired listeners using more realistic room-acoustical models, and proposed an optimal sound-control design for speech intelligibility based on the findings. The auralization technique was used to perform subjective speech-intelligibility tests. The validation study, comparing auralization results with those of real classroom speech-intelligibility tests, found that if the room to be auralized is not very absorptive or noisy, speech-intelligibility tests using auralization are valid. The speech-intelligibility tests were done in two different auralized sound fields--approximately diffuse and non-diffuse--using the Modified Rhyme Test and both normal and hearing-impaired listeners. A hybrid room-acoustical prediction program was used throughout the work, and it and a 1/8 scale-model classroom were used to evaluate the effects of ceiling barriers and reflectors. For both subject groups, in approximately diffuse sound fields, when the speech source was closer to the listener than the noise source, the optimal reverberation time was zero. When the noise source was closer to the listener than the speech source, the optimal reverberation time was 0.4s (with another peak at 0.0s) with relative output power levels of the speech and noise sources SNS = 5dB, and 0.8s with SNS = 0dB. In non-diffuse sound fields, when the noise source was between the speaker and the listener, the optimal reverberation time was 0.6s with SNS = 4dB and increased to 0.8 and 1.2s with decreased SNS = 0dB, for both normal and hearing-impaired listeners. Hearing-impaired listeners required more early energy than normal-hearing listeners. Reflective ceiling barriers and ceiling reflectors--in particular, parallel front-back rows of semi-circular reflectors--achieved the goal of decreasing reverberation with the least speech-level reduction.Medicine, Faculty ofPopulation and Public Health (SPPH), School ofGraduat