Read my lips: Making English visible through oral transliteration

1. READ MY LIPS: MAKING
ENGLISH VISIBLE THROUGH
ORAL TRANSLITERATION
Daniel Greene, BA, CI & CT, NIC Master
© Daniel Greene 2012 1

2. INTRODUCTIONS: ME
• ASL-English
interpreter since
1990; OT workshop Kirsten
Gonzalez 2000
• AA: ASL Interpreting
• BA: English, comm./media
• MA Interpreting Studies/
Teaching Interpreting (now)
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3. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
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4. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Mouthing
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5. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Mouthing
Finger writing
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6. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Mouthing
Use of
Finger writing
space
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7. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Deaf Mouthing
culture
Use of
Finger writing
space
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8. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Deaf Mouthing
culture
Role
shifting
Use of
Finger writing
space
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9. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Deaf Mouthing
culture
Role Facial
shifting grammar
Use of
Finger writing
space
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10. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Deaf Mouthing
culture
Role Facial
shifting grammar
Use of
Finger writing
space
Myths
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11. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Oral
Deaf deaf Mouthing
culture
Role Facial
shifting grammar
Use of
Finger writing
space
Myths
© Daniel Greene 2012 3

12. WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Oral
Deaf deaf Mouthing
culture
Role Oral Facial
shifting Transliteration grammar
Use of
Finger writing
space
Myths
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13. 1. What do you 2. What do you want to
know about DB know about DB
interpreting? interpreting?
3. What do you want to do 4. What do you not
here today? want to do here today?
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14. INTRODUCTIONS: YOU
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15. INTRODUCTIONS: YOU
?
• Your name
• Group members’ names
• Average years of experience
• Your
group’s questions and
answers
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16. TRANSLITERATION DEFINED
• From Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913):
• Transliteration Trans*lit`er*a"tion, n.
• The act or product of transliterating, or of expressing words of
a language by means of the characters of another alphabet.
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17. ALEF-BET–TO–ALPHABET
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18. AURAL-TO-VISUAL ENGLISH
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19. INTERPRETATION VS.
TRANSLITERATION
Interpretation Transliteration
• Decodes message from • Encodes message from
source language; encodes source mode; encodes into
into target language. target mode.
• Deals with oral-aural and/ • Represents the same
or visual-gestural sounds in different visual
languages, e.g. French-to- media, e.g. Hebrew alef-
English or English-to-ASL. bet–to–Roman alphabet or
aural English–to–visual
English.
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20. ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
• Turn aural English into visible
oral & manual English using
their mouths, facial
expressions, body language,
and gestures!
© Daniel Greene 2012 10

21. AN ORAL TRANSLITERATOR…
“Communicates the words of a speaker or group of speakers to
an individual who is deaf by inaudibly mouthing what is said so
that it can be read on the lips.” —Alexander Graham Bell
Hearing Health Dictionary online.
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22. RID CERTIFIED
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
“Qualified oral transliterators have knowledge and abilities in the
process of speechreading, speech production and the
communication needs of speechreaders. Transliterators are aware of
environmental and social factors influencing the service provider
and the service recipient. Transliterators know how to manipulate
and adapt these factors for successful communication. Qualified oral
transliterators have developed articulation skills and techniques that
allow for easy understanding by speechreaders and have become
skilled in employing verbal and non-verbal support techniques, thus
assuring that the message is transmitted accurately.” —RID Standard
Practice Paper “Oral Transliteration” (2007)
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23. RID ORAL TRANSLITERATION
CERTIFICATE (OTC)
• NAD–RID Code of Professional Conduct; Written &
performance test.
• “OTC (Oral Transliteration Certificate): Holders of this generalist
certificate have demonstrated, using silent oral techniques and
natural gestures, the ability to transliterate a spoken message from
a person who hears to a person who is deaf or hard-of-hearing.
They have also demonstrated the ability to understand and repeat
the message and intent of the speech and mouth movements of
the person who is deaf or hard-of-hearing. This test is currently
available.” —RID.org
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24. ORAL INTERPRETING DEMO
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25. ORAL INTERPRETING DEMO
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26. OT DON’T’S
Finger-
Reflections Thrust
spelling
tongue on
L and Th Sign or
Chew “teach”
gum Whisper
Move Distracting
head too background
Hair Smile much
covering while
face mouthing Contrast
colors
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27. Lipread OT DO’S Write
in air
Space
Lipstick Mouth
& role
slower
shifting
Natural Natural
Distinguish phrasing
gestures
B&M
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28. MOUTHING MATTERS
“Say every word. Give full due to the ‘little’ words… These
words are essential to grammatical structure of English, on
which a speechreader depends heavily.” —Kirsten Gonzalez
“The Oral Interpreter must be totally focused on ‘how does
that word look on my mouth?’ Can the sound be seen on my
lips? Is there another word or phrase that can be seen more
easily and still mean the same?” —Judith Codner, OTC
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29. THINGS TO WATCH FOR
• Observedifferences/similarities between sign transliteration
mouthing and oral transliteration mouthing.
• Observe the use of facial expression/grammar, body language/
grammar, spacial schema, gesture, and air writing.
• Observe how oral Deaf people mouth, speak, gesture, and
read lips. What might an oral transliterator do that is similar or
different?
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30. ADVANTAGES OF USING AN
ORAL TRANSLITERATOR
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31. ASL INTERPRETERS VS.
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
ASL Interpreters Oral Transliterators
• Mouth ASL (pah, mm). • Mouth English only.
• Sign while mouthing. • Do not distract with sign.
• Might not know how to • Know how to mouth
mouth without signing. without signing.
• Might want to teach oral • Don’t try to teach oral
people sign language. people sign language.
• Might think oral deaf are • Respect oral deaf clients’
opposed to Deaf culture. choice not to use ASL.
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32. SPEAKERS VS.
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
Speakers Oral Transliterators
• Might not mouth words • Use their expertise to
carefully enough. mouth words clearly.
• Might turn their backs • Face clients directly at all
while they are speaking. times.
• Might have hard-to-read • Mouth clearly even if the
accents, speech patterns. speaker doesn’t
• Might have pale lips or • Wear a bit of lip color and/
heavy facial hair obscuring or trim their facial hair.
their mouth.
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33. CART VS.
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
CART Oral Transliterators
• Letters on a flat screen • Expressive human beings
• Limited to no interaction • Accessible for clarification
with captionist & feedback
• Limited portability • Go anywhere people fit
• Captionist not trained in • Used to deaf speech and
understanding deaf can repeat it clearly
people’s speech
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34. BEWARE THE -ISMS & -ISTS
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35. 26%
28%
4 out of 10
40%
15–25%
30% 30–
23%
40%
Less than half 20% 25–30% 1/3–1/4
(sic)
THE PERCENTAGE MYTH
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36. CONTACT ME
www.terptrans.com
danieljamesgreene@gmail.com
© Daniel Greene 2012 26