Shaping Learning Spaces with Acoustical Systems to Facilitate Emerging Pedagogical Approaches in Singapore’s Multilingual Education Context
[ERFP 05/24 LSK]
Dr Siu-Kit LAU,
Associate Professor
National University of Singapore (NUS)
Effective classroom communication is fundamental to teaching and learning, yet many classrooms are not acoustically designed to support emerging pedagogical approaches and multilingual education. This project aims to understand how classroom acoustics influence speech communication in Singapore’s primary and secondary schools and to develop evidence-based acoustic design recommendations, including acoustic ceiling systems and classroom loudspeaker systems, for future learning spaces.
As one of the first large-scale field studies of classroom acoustics in Singapore, the project investigates classrooms across 15 primary schools and 10 secondary schools. Acoustic measurements, including background noise, reverberation time and speech intelligibility, are conducted alongside student word recognition tests to examine how classroom acoustic conditions affect speech understanding. The project also uses acoustic simulations to identify optimal acoustic performance and evaluate potential intervention strategies.
Data collected from different classroom environments are used to examine the relationships between classroom design, acoustic conditions and speech communication. Building on this understanding, ongoing research combines acoustic simulations and field validation to evaluate acoustic ceiling treatments that can reduce interference between student groups during collaborative learning, and classroom loudspeaker systems that provide more uniform speech intelligibility across the classroom. The project also investigates speech enhancement strategies for Singapore’s multilingual learning environment, including optimising speech processing for tonal languages such as Mandarin. All proposed interventions will be validated through before-and-after measurements in real classrooms. The outcomes will provide evidence-based guidance for the design and retrofit of future learning spaces in Singapore.