An audiology program graduate student from the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders is requesting volunteers for a research study involving persons that can be classified as an English-only speaker or an English-Spanish bilingual speaker. Volunteers must be between the ages of 18-35.
The purpose of this research study is to understand the listening abilities of bilingual individuals in quiet and noisy environments. The results of this research should give the profession of audiology more information on how a second language affects hearing and auditory processing in noise.
Participants will be asked to complete a pre-questionnaire asking for their gender, age group, race, and whether one identifies as a person of Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin. After completing the questionnaire, participants’ hearing will be tested in various listening conditions (i.e., hearing tones, repeating words in quiet and in noise, and repeating sentences in noise).
English-only participants will complete the tests in English, while the Spanish-English bilingual participants will complete the tests in both English and Spanish. Participants will then be asked to complete a post-questionnaire asking for feedback on how easy or difficult it was to listen in those various conditions.
The tests are expected to last less than one hour and will take place at the Evelyn Hendren Cassat Speech, Language, Hearing Clinic on Oliver and 29th Street.
For more information or to participate, contact Maira Bañuelos Galicia at 316-249-4889 or mxbanuelosgalicia@shockers.wichita.edu. You can also contact Dr. Cynthia Richburg at 316-978-6682 or cynthia.richburg@wichita.edu.