http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1220963/Teachers-turn-pop-headsets-save-voices.html
Here is my response:
In response to the Daily Mail article regarding teachers being amplified in classrooms to put less vocal strain on their voices, Executive Voice – vocal and communications training, has the following response.
Executive Voice appreciates that occasionally, the acoustics of a room make it very challenging for a teacher to be heard. Also, if there is a child in a class who has hearing difficulties, vocal enhancement can aide the child in hearing the teacher.
However, Executive Voice has a number of concerns regarding the amplification of teachers in the classroom.
- It is cited that 1 in 5 teachers loses their voice each term; this is due, in the main to mis-use of the voice, through over use; incorrect production of the voice resulting in vocal damage and vocal tiredness. Whilst amplification puts less strain on the voice, if the voice is not being used healthily in the first place, the damage to the voice will still continue.
- One of the most important communication skills students should learn is ‘listening’. Executive Voice is concerned that by amplifying teachers’ voices, pupils are not learning this skill and the sound will be another ‘noise’ in the classroom to listen to. Students should be learning to concentrate; not be distracted by other things (other pupils; mobile phones; fidgeting etc).
- Unless teachers are properly trained to set sound levels that are most appropriate for the space, there will be issues of noise disturbing other classrooms – unless there is adequate sound proofing in every room. Sounds from other classrooms will be more distracting for students trying to concentrate on their own work.
- By increasing the volume of the teacher’s voice in a classroom, it only adds to the overall volume of the classroom sound. Students are so used to living in ‘noisy’ environments: with TVs or music always in the background. The additional sound of a loud teacher’s voice will be an additional distraction and make the working environment still more noisy.
- Students are largely influenced by TV and the behaviour of favourite characters on TV programmes. Executive Voice has noticed how more students and young people imitate the communication style of ‘Soap operas’ where everyone shouts at each other rather than calmly discusses issues and resolves disagreements in this way. Executive Voice believes that by amplifying the voices of teachers, students will not experience the varied volume, character and nuances of a natural voice, since sound enhancement largely neutralises the characteristics of a natural voice unless a very skilled sound engineer is at hand.
- Executive Voice believes that the large sums of money being used by schools to purchase amplification equipment would be better spent training teachers to use their voices healthily. In PGCE courses, one hour’s training is given to the entire student course. More vocal and communication training during the teacher training and INSET for qualified teachers would be far more beneficial to the profession.
For interviews: comments and more information, please contact Susan Heaton Wright on 0844 576 3015. susan@executivevoice.co.uk http://www.executivevoice.co.uk
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2 comments:
I work for FrontRow, the manufacturer of the voice reinforcement products used in the article. We fully support both acoustical treatment of classrooms and vocal training for teachers. Our products are complementary to both. Nor can any one method fully substitute for the other two.
The subject of voice reinforcement is often confusing to those who have not experienced it personally. I invite you to visit a classroom using the technology to see and hear for yourself the effect it has on learning. At a minimum, please look at the overwhelming evidence of academic improvement in amplified classrooms— the results are significant, repeatable, and are the simple reason that schools keep using mics.
Creating Enhanced Learning Environments
Using Sound Field FM Systems to Improve Literacy Scores
Evaluating Amplification Technology in New Brunswick Schools
Voice reinforcement is not about increasing the noise level. These devices produce sound clarity, not rock-concert loudness. They function primarily by reducing the distance between the students and the teacher’s voice (i.e., by placing speakers around the room), and add only gentle amplification. Classrooms using voice reinforcement are in fact often quieter than non-amplified rooms, simply because students are easily able to focus on the teacher for long periods.
It’s easy to imagine that classroom amplification is something like turning on the radio, the TV, and the iPod at once —the teacher’s voice becoming just another competing noise. Visitors to a typical classroom using mics quickly notice just one calm, clear sound: the teacher’s voice, to which students are directing full attention.
You suggest rightly that children should learn to listen and concentrate; but research shows that making it harder to focus does not turn children into better listeners. It’s a common fear that children will become unable to listen without the use of amplification— that it’s a crutch encouraging weakness and dependence. One might argue the same for lights in the classroom. But just as children’s eyes don’t become weaker because we enhance their ability to see with lighting, there's no reason to fear that mics will turn them into stunted listeners. In fact, 30 years of research demonstrate that children lack the auditory development of adults; need a much clearer sound signal than adults do; gain language, literacy, and attentiveness skills at a much faster rate in amplified classrooms — and successfully apply these skills in all environments.
A final concern is that students will not experience the varied volume, character and nuances of a natural voice in a classroom with voice reinforcement. Actually, just the opposite is true. The typical (perhaps untrained) ‘teacher voice’ tends to have an elevated volume, emphasizes vowel sounds, and often has a tense emotional quality. When using a mic, however, a teacher is not sacrificing tonal quality for projection’s sake. He or she can speak completely naturally — even whisper — and still be understood by the farthest student. What’s more, consonants — which carry up to 70% of the meaning in English, but which are very weak and often lost in distance and noise — can be crisply conveyed to students.
While voice reinforcement can reduce the intensity of vocal strain, it cannot address the effect of speaking for long periods. Nor can it compensate for reverberant rooms. To solve these problems, teachers must turn to voice training and acoustic treatment — which I would hope will be viewed as allied with rather than antagonistic toward voice reinforcement.
With kind regards,
John
John
Thank you for your comments which were very well informed. I too am aware of sound enhancement given that I have been in the entertainment business for a number of years. My main concern is that 1. children will not benefit from hearing a proper human voice being used; the nuances of the character; the changes in volume and the subtle way we use our voices. Unless one has a good sound engineer in the classroom all the time, it is unlikely to be able to do this.
2. I do not agree that there is evidence of academic improvement in amplified rooms. The top British schools - of which I went to one, do not have sound enhancement in their classrooms.
The reason why schools are using mics is because there is an increase in teachers taking sick leave due to vocal strain.
3. Children listen in a different way (as do adults) when a voice is amplified. Due to the technology the human element of a voice is partially lost. It becomes white noise which people switch in and out of. Unless - of course there is a good sound engineer on hand to adjust levels etc.
4. If a teacher is producing their voice incorrectly - and the majority are, the problem of vocal strain is not going to be resolved by amplification. Repeated usage of the voice incorrectly leads to health problems; some of which are only resolved by surgery. Teachers require the training to avoid this.
In the end you are trying to justify selling your product, which is, of course, fine. My concern is that the issue of learning to communicate: listening and speaking clearly, which are basic skills pupils require, are being neglected. Also, that the issue of teachers' vocal health is not being addressed.
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