Comparative examination of prosodic features in speech of individuals with normal hearing and cochlear implant

The aim of this research is to compare the prosodic features in the speech of the individuals with normal hearing and cochlear implant. Therefore, the parameters of focus, duration, f0, intensity were examined comparatively. Eight university students with cochlear implant and six university students with normal hearing participated in this research. At the end of the research, the average duration and intensity for the focus words were found to be higher than that of the non-focus words. It has been found that focused words have lower f0 standard deviation and f0 range than non-focus words. It has been observed that the students with cochlear implant have higher f0 standard deviation and f0 range in word production than those students with normal hearing. The duration of word production was found out to be longer for participants with cochlear implant than that of the individuals with normal hearing. The results of the research show that the participants with cochlear implant use the duration as the primary parameter in the narrow focus production. Another notable finding is that the f0 standard deviation and f0 range values of the students with cochlear implant are higher than that of the individuals with normal hearing. Key words: Cochlear implant, prosodic, narrow focus