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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/K83632/01
Title: SPEECH INTELLIGIBILITY IN CLASSROOMS
Principal Investigator: MacKenzie, Mr D
Other Investigators:
Craik, Professor B
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Pre Nexus Migration Royal National Inst for Deaf People
Department: Building Engineering & Surveying
Organisation: Heriot-Watt University
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 08 January 1996 Ends: 07 January 1998 Value (£): 81,261
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Building Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Sports and Recreation
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
In a classroom environment, communication is mainly done through speaking by the teacher and listening by the pupils. Classrooms must therefore be designed to achieve the highest level of speech intelligibility. Research has shown that many classrooms, irrespective of the country, tend to have too high a background noise level or too long a reverberation time, thus making the spoken word difficult to understand. Teachers often have to raise their voice, thus making the pupils feel uneasy which is reflected in their poor achievement. A study will be carried out in 60 classrooms to measure the speech intelligibility, investigating the background noise levels, reverberation times, signal/noise rations, RASTI values etc. From the results, a design guide will be produced suggesting methods of improving the acoustics of existing classrooms, thus making the environment within classrooms much more conducive to learning.
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Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.hw.ac.uk