Defense Date

7-9-2018

Graduation Date

Summer 8-11-2018

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

thesis

Degree Name

MSSLP

Department

Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)

School

Rangos School of Health Sciences

Committee Chair

Heather Leavy Rusiewicz

Committee Member

Yang Chen

Committee Member

Katie Micco

Keywords

accent, modification, reduction, ultrasound, biofeedback, mandarin, foreign language

Abstract

The number of individuals in the United States who speak languages other than English continues to increase. With the increase of language diversity comes a potential rise in communication challenges for those who speak with non-mainstream American English accents as English language learners. A portion of these individuals may elect to seek accent modification services, perhaps due to decreased intelligibility or communication breakdowns. Thus, speech-language pathologists must research and provide effective techniques to enhance intelligibility of all American English speakers for optimal communication. Few approaches employ a variety of treatment methods to improve speech sound accuracy, naturalness and intelligibility to target accent modification. One of these methods is ultrasound biofeedback therapy. Ultrasound therapy relies on visual feedback for remediation of speech sound production errors for those with various etiologies and diagnoses. A single-subject ABAB withdrawal design was employed with two native Mandarin speakers to examine the effect of incorporating ultrasound visual biofeedback in the treatment of consonant and vowel targets as measured by perceptual, acoustic and visual analyses.

Language

English

Download

Share

COinS