Development of Korean Standard Monosyllabic Word Lists for Adults (KS-MWL-A)

Abstract

Word recognition test (WRT) presented at the most comfortable loudness level can provide valuable informations for diagnosing the degree of communication disability, prescribing hearing instruments, planning aural rehabilitation and speech therapy, and determination of site of lesions. The purpose of this study was to develop the Korean standard monosyllabic word lists for adults (KS-MWL-A). Considering the criteria given by the literatures such as phonetic balance, equal range of phonetic composition of speech, words in common usage, and words’ familiarity, etc, first 1,456 candidating monosyllabic words were selected. Those were extracted from the conventional lists, the first and second graded familiar words, and the words that were included in the dictionary. In order to reflect the actual frequencies of syllable in colloquialism, initial and final consonants’ and vowels’ frequencies in everyday dialogue were investigated and controlled. The KS-MWL-A was developed with selected final 200 monosyllabic words, followed by examinations of psychometric functions and homogeneity of the stimulus twice and corrections referred by the experts. The first and the second psychometric function tests were performed to 30 young adults (mean age：22) and to 48 young adults (mean age：21.5), respec- tively at 12 steps of intensity from -10 to 45 dBHL in 5 dBHL steps and psychometric function curves were obtained using the logistic regression equation. The mean slope was 8.81 and the words that were within 1.50 and 1.96 standard deviations of the slope and the level were only included. The KS-MWL-A 200 words were composed of conventional word lists by Hahm (1962) with 53.5% (107 words) and the first and second graded familiarity words with 93.5% (187 words). Also, consonant-vowel-consonant formation and noun class were mostly composed with 52% (104 words) and 97.5% (196 words). Four lists were balanced based on equal average difficulty and equal phonetic composition and homogeneity. List 1, 2, 3, 4’s slope means were analyzed by one way ANOVA according to the type of the list-full list with 50 words, half list with 25 words, and quick list with 10 words- and showed 0.37, 0.32, and 0.09 probability value. This indicates there should be no clinical difference among four lists used with the type of lists. And the type of the lists’ slope means were analyzed by one way ANOVA according to the four different 1, 2, 3, and 4 lists and showed 0.91, 0.62, 0.57 and 0.09 probability value. This indicates there should be no clinical difference among type of the list used with the different four lists as well. However, there were some limitations in developing the KS-MWL-A for that graded familiarity was not systematical, that psychometric functions should have been analyzed for all the drafted lists, that the frequency of the final consonant was analyzed tentatively, and that the word frequency and lexical effects were not considered based on the neighborhood activation model. Further verification of this study should be performed for better Korean monosyllabic word lists. KEY