The study aims to explore mainstreamed hearing-impaired
students'' intelligibility on Mandarin affricates from two
point of views:hearing perception and acoustic
characteristics. The researcher-made Mandarin Affricates Word
List, Mandarin Affricates Intelligibility Evaluation Form, and
commercial Dr. Speech & Real Speech software were served as
measurements. The samples were 16 hearing-impaired children who
were mainstreamed into regular classrooms and 35 normal
hearing children. Affricates pronounced intelligibility of
hearing- impaired children, correctness of hearing
discrimination of Mandarin affricates, and related factors were
explored. Besides, acoustics characteristics were examined
between students with and without hearing impairments, and
factors predicting acoustics characteristics of hearing
impaired student'' intelligibility of Mandarin affricates were
explored. The results were as follows: (1)、Hearing
perception of hearing impaired student'' Mandarin affricates.
Result of the study showed that (a)、The overall intelligibility
of hearing impaired students'' Mandarin affricates is 36.8%;
best in syllables then words, then phonemes;regarding the
place of articulation, best in alveolo-palatal, then
retroflex, then apical-dental;better unaspiration than
aspiration. (b)、 Overall correctness of hearing impaired
student'' hearing discrimination of Mandarin affricates is
28.1%;correctness of affricates is best phonemes,35.9% ;then
syllables, 24.5%;then words,25.9%. Regarding the place of
articulation, the affricate is better alveolo-palatal than
apical-dental, and then retroflex, the unaspiration are better
than aspiration ones. (c)、The correclation coefficient
between hearing and speaking Mandarin affricates is .35 (p<.01).
(d)、Using step wise regression statistics, from high to low
rank, are: correctness of hearing discrimination, better-ear
hearing threshould, preschool aural-oral training period, age,
and time of wearing hearing aids;these factors could predict
64.1% of total variance. (2)、Acoustic characteristics of
hearing impaired student'' Mandarin affricates. Acoustics
characteristics of unintelligible affricates pronounced by
hearing impaired student are shown below:(a)、Affricate
phonemes have a lower rate of release burst of on set. (b)、
Affricate phonemes axhibit a longer voice onset time(VOT) and
wider range. (c)、The rise time of fricative noise of affricate
phonemes is longer, and the variation is larger. (d)、There is a
smaller difference between the maximum and minimun frequency of
energy in the fricative noise of affricate phonemes. (e)、The
fundamental frequency(F0), F1, F2, and F2-F1 values of
affricate syllables are in a wider range. (f)、The VOT of
initial words is shorter. (g)、The VOT of ending-words is
longer, and the aspiration-unaspiration of voice cannot be
distinguished.(i)、The closure durationis shorter. (3)、
Factors predicting acoustic charactics of hearing impaired
student'' intelligility of Mandarin affricates, from high to
low rank, incude: (a)、 minimum frequency of energy in the
fricative noise of affricate phonemes, fundamental frequency
of affricate syllables, space of vowels, voice onset times of
initial words, and maximum frequency of energy in the fricative
noise of affricate phonemes. These five variables could
explain 85.7% of total variance (p.<.001). Based on
result findings suggestions are made for special educators,
clinical professionals, and further interested researchers''
references.