Mandarin Speech Perception Tests for Malaysian Chinese Children

Abstract

The study aimed to develop Mandarin speech perception tests for Malaysian Chinese children. Two tests were developedwhich were the Syllabic Pattern Perception Test (SPPT) and the Tone Perception Test (TPT). Both tests were designed forchildren aged between three to six years-old. A total of 80 normal hearing children aged 3 years to 6 years and 11months from several kindergartens around Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh participated in this study. Results showed that themean scores for the SPPT did not differ significantly across age (p > 0.05), possibly due to a ceiling effect. Although theSPPT showed relatively low test-retest and inter-rater Spearman correlation coefficients (r = 0.68 for correct syllablepattern response and r = 0.38 for correct item response), the scores were highly repeatable in both test-retest and interraterconditions. For the TPT, the mean scores of five and six year old children were significantly higher than three yearold subjects while the mean score of four year old subjects was significantly poorer than the six years old. The test-retestand inter-rater reliability were high and the coefficients approximated 0.80 (p < 0.05). For both tests, gender anddialects or languages used as the second language did not have significant effect on the test scores. Content validityevidence was also collected from a group of panelists. In conclusion, SPPT and TPT are reliable and valid Mandarinspeech tests to be used on Malaysian Chinese children who speak Mandarin.