Study to document a curriculum to train audiologists in South Africa
Unfortunately I can't find the original source of this study, with no title nor author mentioned .
I have had the study on file for a while. If anyone knows the source, let me know.  - Ytzen Lont

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Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the history of audiology and the development of audiology training programmes locally and abroad. It investigates the evolution of the profession of audiology and provides an overview of the trend towards a clinical doctorate as a minimum entry-level into the profession of audiology in the United States. The unique challenges of the South African context are discussed. 

Chapter 2 Methodology details the aims of the study, the research design and the analysis of the data. A detailed description of the sample is also provided. Objective: To document a curriculum to train audiologists in South Africa based on: a. audiologists’ perceptions of the adequacy of current undergraduate training programs. b. audiologists’ opinions regarding educational reform in terms of undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Chapter 3 Descriptive statistics. This chapter details the results of both descriptive and inferential data analysis. The results are displayed in tabular and graphic form and significant results are reported.

Chapter 4  Discussion . This chapter details the results of both descriptive and inferential data analysis. The results are displayed in tabular and graphic form and significant results are reported.

Fragments from Chapter 1. The profession of audiology emerged during World War II due to the need for rehabilitation services for deafened war veterans (Byrne, 1995; Katz, 2002; Casey & Monley, 2002). The rehabilitation services for those who had lost their hearing as a result of noise exposure in the war required specialist input from various fields, including acoustics, psychology and speech pathology. Norton Canfield and Raymond Carhart used the term “audiologist” to describe the professional services provided to military personnel with hearing loss in an Aural Rehabilitation Centre in a Deshon Army Hospital in Butler, Pennsylvania. Soon the term spread to other military aural rehabilitation centers where similar services were being offered. The scope of practice of audiology was growing rapidly with an increasing emphasis on tests and measurement rather than rehabilitation due to technological advances applicable to the profession (Van Vliet, Berkey, Marion & Robinson, 1992). The computer technology upsurge of the 1970’s and 80’s contributed to the changing face of audiology (Wolf, 1994). The Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) was gaining popularity at this time as a test for screening infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), identifying suspected mass-occupying lesions and documenting demyelinating diseases. The discovery of Oto-Acoustic Emissions (OAEs) in 1978 led to the development of new areas of application for audiologists (Harford, 2000), including newborn hearing screening and ototoxicity monitoring. The 1980’s brought with it the introduction of probe microphone measures as a method of evaluating hearing aids in situ and early attempts at applying digital signal processing to hearing aids (Preves & Curran, 2000).

§1.7. Challenges Unique to the South African Context. Against the backdrop of the professional developments are the unique challenges faced by the South African context, including: 1. Incongruity of urban and rural services. 2. Disability in relation to the number and distribution of professionals. 3. Linguistic diversity. 4. The HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

Speech-language therapists and audiologists are uniquely affected by the multilingual nature of South Africa. The most common home language of South Africa is Zulu (24% of the population speak Zulu at home), followed by Xhosa at 18% and Afrikaans at 13%. English is only the fifth most common home language in the country, but is understood in most urban areas and is the dominant language in government and the media (Statistics South Africa, 2003). 

Table 3. Percentage distribution of languages spoken in South Africa according to Census 2001 (Statistics South Africa 2003)
Language + Percentage
IsiZulu 23.8
IziXhosa 17.6
Afrikaans 13.3
Sepedi 9.4
Setswana 8.2
English 8.2
Sesotho 7.9
Xitsonga 4.4
SiSwati 2.7
Tshivenda 2.3
IsiNdebele 1.6
Other 0.5

You can open (and download) the file here or read it below. (use the arrow in the right upper corner to open (and download) the shown file. PDF 131p