Phonetic transcription, whole-word match judgement, and intra-word consistency judgement of Mandarin-speaking children’s speech by English-language trained speech-language pathologists and students

Limited research has investigated speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs) abilities to transcribe speech in unfamiliar languages and ways to improve those skills. This study aims to evaluate the Mandarin phonetic transcription skills, whole-word match (WWM) judgements, and intra-word consistency judgements of English-language trained SLPs and SLP students. Participants included SLPs and SLP graduate students from diverse linguistic and educational backgrounds with varying English transcription proficiency. Results showed that SLPs and SLP students were able to make significant progress in transcribing Mandarin as an unfamiliar language with appropriate support following a self-directed training programme. Most participants reported increased confidence in their Mandarin transcription skills following the training. The difference between SLPs and SLP students was not significant. Participants’ feedback was summarised to guide future training and support revisions to the training guide.