Singing – as a natural human expressive outlet – is a phenomenon both assumed and understated and a few reasons are offered to account for this ambivalence. First, the act/tivity understood as ‘singing’ disguises its psychoacoustic reality as ‘voiced sounds’ (Sundberg 1991) as well as its secondary biological function (Vennard 1967, p. 37) in human endowment. Secondly, as sound ‘personifies’ (Ihde 2007, p. 21), ‘voiced sounds’ personify the confluence of individual and social identities. Finally, as a combination of sonorous and lyrical textuality, ‘voiced sounds’ interpret sonorous outcomes such that words, vowels, and phonemes are so many ways of singing the world (Merleau-Ponty 2004, p. 217). Our study of新谣 (Xinyao) as a musical practice in Singapore (Groves 2001) examines the assertions of singing ‘as a natural human expressive outlet’. Following the accounts of a prominent voice in the practice for whom singing is 说唱 (shuo chang) – speech singing, we suggest an understanding of shuo chang first as voiced sounds and second as a practice involving voiced sounds. Much of the research material for this paper was obtained with funds from a research grant awarded by the National Arts Council of Singapore in 2002.

One of the occupational risks that teachers are subjected to is the development of voice problems. A study conducted by Varkey Foundation found that teachers in Singapore work an estimated of 52 hours per week (Kamil, 2018). Another study conducted by Lee and Poon (2014), found that their Singaporean teacher participants devoted 45 to 65 hours per week and thus teachers are frequently indicated to be at a higher risk of vocal disturbances.
Using the voice consistently over long periods of hours can result in vocal problems like hoarseness of voice, vocal fatigue, laryngitis and voice loss. Long term effects of such problems can be detrimental to one’s health, leading to permanent damage of one’s vocal cords and chronic voice disorders (Machodo, Bhojwani & Sreedharan, 2017).
With Singaporean teachers producing long teaching hours and the lack of training in voice care amongst teachers in Singapore can potentially increase the probability of developing of voice problems throughout their career. Charn and Hwei Mok (2012) provides support to the hypothesis as their findings corroborates that the teaching profession has a higher prospect for acquiring voice problems.
Therefore, the purpose of this research is to understand the importance of voice care and preservation amongst Secondary school teachers in Singapore. This research is important towards the teaching practice because it further investigates the need for proper vocal care training amongst pre-service teachers and teachers who are currently in the service in Singapore to reduce the development of voice problems amongst educators. This study aims to find out what are some voice problems that Secondary school teachers face, why should teachers be concerned about the importance of voice care and the relevance of voice care to Singaporean teachers. With teachers relying extensively on the use of their voice every day, how can teachers themselves ensure voice preservation? Other research questions include learning about some complimentary tools that teachers use to help cope with vocal fatigue and useful measures that they have adopted to ensure voice preservation throughout their career?