| dc.description.abstract |
Presentation expertise is an essential characteristic of a successful news-reader. The study aimed to investigate the uency characteristics like continuity, rate and speech naturalness in TV newscasters and control speakers. The participants included 10 (8 females and 2 males) news readers within the age-range of 25-35 years and 10 age and gender matched controls. Spontaneous speech and reading samples of the participants were audio recorded and analysed for type and percentage of dis uencies, rate of spontaneous speech and reading and speech natural- ness. Three post-graduate speech language pathologists rated the speech samples for naturalness using Multidimensional Speech Naturalness scale (Kanchan & Savithri, 1997). The percentage of dis uencies was higher in control group as compared to news readers both in reading as well as in spontaneous speech tasks. The news readers exhibited normal dis uencies like interjections, pauses, revisions, word llers, phrase repetitions and whole word repetitions while the normal group in addition showed revisions and word llers as well as occasional stuttering like dis uencies (SLDs) like part word repetitions, sound repetitions and prolongations. Signicant dierence in spontaneous speaking rate was evidenced between the two groups, but no signicant dierence in reading rate was noticed between news readers and controls. Overall naturalness of the spontaneous speech as well as reading samples was dependent on the groups. Hence, the professional news readers diered from the normals in terms of types and percentage of dis uencies, speaking rate and naturalness characteristics. |
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