Acoustics education for speech-language pathology courses in Japan

Speech-language-hearing therapists are nationally licensed professionals specialized in speech and language pathology in Japan. Acoustics is one of the required areas of study, and education in acoustics is usually taught by experts. Students are taking courses in related topics, such as acoustic phonetics and speech science. Because students have different academic backgrounds, it is always a challenge for instructors to teach them acoustics. For example, the concept of “source and filter” in speech production is one area students sometimes struggle to understand. Using a set of physical models of the human vocal tract with various sound sources is an intuitive way to assist students' understanding. In addition, videos of real physical phenomena and computer-based animations are also helpful. Finally, an education program in acoustics for such students with those tools is proposed. [This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 24K06423 and 24K06363.]