VOCAL HYGIENE AWARENESS AMONG VOICE PROFESSIONALS (TEACHERS): THE UNIVERSITY OF LAHORE

Abstract

Vocal hygiene is pivotal to maintain healthy vocal life as improper hygiene can lead to voice disorders and disturbed voice. Enormous usage of vocal cords is found in teachers due to their type of profession. Teachers have to speak loud for a long time during lectures.  A number of researches have been conducted on this topic as voice problems are prevalent in teachers as they are unaware of vocal hygiene maintenance. Present research is also focused upon inquiring vocal awareness among teachers of University of the Lahore Objective: This study is significant to explore the awareness of teachers regarding vocal hygiene, to examine the classroom manners of professionals (teachers) that can cause voice problems and to investigate the vocal hygiene habits of teachers of University of Lahore Methods:  This study is a quantitative study.  The questionnaire has 18 questions related to vocal hygiene and vocal care. The sampling technique which is used to gather data is Purposive sampling technique. Teachers of university of Lahore were included in this study because they had high rate of vocal use and administrative and other staff of the Questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS software. Sample size has been calculated by taking the estimate proportion 0.7638(24), the estimated sample size will be 109. 109 (male and female) fulltime university lecturers in the age range of 20 to 49 years contributed in the research. Their working hours range from 4 to more than years. The numbers of students in each class varies from 10 to 60 Results: Result shows that 80 percent of teachers have no voice problems and teachers maintain healthy eating and drinking habits and their classroom manners are also safe for vocal cords. But, most of the teachers are unaware of vocal hygiene Conclusion: This study suggests that vocal hygiene should be made a part of general instructions to teachers to avoid voice problems.