Question
I am trying to find some Spanish word lists for children and adults. Can you give me some links or options? We don't use CD players so I just need the actual listings.
Answer
Most clinicians with a basic knowledge of Spanish are able to obtain the speech recognition threshold (SRT) by using easy to pronounce words. Schneider (1992) stated that phonetic differences among various Spanish dialects are of minor importance in SRT testing. The digit SRT test for non-native speakers of English is an effective and accurate measure to administer. Digit-pairs are used because of their cross-linguistic appeal and ease in judging responses (Ramkissoon, 2002).
According to Cokely and Yager (1993), monolingual English-speaking audiologists are able to score Spanish responses from word recognition measures accurately. However, spoken presentations of Spanish materials by native English speakers do not yield valid measurements of word recognition ability in noise, stated Cokely and Camacho (1992).
References
Cokely, J., & Yager, C. (1993). Scoring Spanish word-recognition measures. Ear & Hearing, Dec; 14(6):395-400.
Cokely, Jeffrey A. and Camacho, Luis F. (1992). Spanish word-recognition performance of natives of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Poster presented at the Fourth Annual Convention of the American Academy of Audiology, Nashville, TN.
Ramkissoon, I., Proctor, A., Lansing, C. & Bilger, R. (2002). Digit speech recognition thresholds (SRT) for non-natives speakers of English. American Journal of Audiology 11:23-28.
Schneider, B. (1992). Effect of dialect on the determination of speech-reception thresholds in Spanish-speaking children. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, April; 23:159-162.
Recorded Spanish Test Materials:
Auditec of St. Louis, 330 Selma Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63119
Cardenas, N. and Marrero, V. (1990). Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia. Madrid: Simancas Ediciones, S.A.
Articles with Spanish Word Recognition Lists:
Benitez, L. and Speaks, C. (1969). A test of speech intelligibility in the Spanish language. International Audiology, 7:16-22.
Comstock, C. and Martin, F. N. (1984). A children's Spanish word discrimination test for non-Spanish-speaking clinicians. Ear & Hearing, May-June; 5(3):166-70.
Martin, F. and Hart, D. (1978). Measurement of speech thresholds of Spanish-speaking children by non-Spanish speaking clinicians. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 43:255-262
Pollack, M. (1970). Phonemic discrimination in Spanish: The need for and development of a new test for use in the United States. Microfilm of the University of Southern Califrnia, LA.
Rosenblut, B. (1962). Listas de palabras en espanol para pruebas de discriminacion. Revista de Otolaryngologia, Chile, 22(2):37-49.
Spitzer, J.B. (1980). The development of a picture SRT test in Spanish for use with Urban U.S. residents of Hispanic background. Journal of Communication Disorders, 13: 147-151.
Brisy Northrup, Au.D., is a faculty associate and clinical audiologist at the UTDallas-Callier Center. Dr. Northrup has presented at numerous national and international conventions on multicultural issues in audiology and has appeared as an expert guest on national and regional television shows. Promoting bilingual and multicultural issues within the audiology profession for more than 20 years, she has served on a multitude of committees and boards. She is currently the Vice President for the Pan American Society of Audiology.