Oral Transliteration

Read my lips: Making English visible through oral transliteration

1. © Daniel Greene 2012
READ MY LIPS: MAKING
ENGLISH VISIBLE THROUGH
ORAL TRANSLITERATION
Daniel Greene, BA, CI & CT, NIC Master
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2. © Daniel Greene 2012
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
Oral
Transliteration
Deaf
culture
Oral
deaf
Use of
space
Mouthing
Role
shifting
Finger writing
Myths
Facial
grammar
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3. © Daniel Greene 2012
•ASL-English interpreting
since 1990; OT workshop
Kirsten Gonzalez 2000
•AA: ASL Interpreting
•BA: English, comm./media
•MA Interpreting Studies/
Teaching Interpreting (now)
INTRODUCTIONS: ME
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4. © Daniel Greene 2012
INTRODUCTIONS: YOU
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5. © Daniel Greene 2012
•What’s your name?
•What do you know re: OT?
•What do you want to get
out of this workshop?
•How will you use knowledge
& skills gained here today?
INTRODUCTIONS: YOU
?
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6. © Daniel Greene 2012
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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7. © Daniel Greene 2012
ALEF-BET–TO–ALPHABET
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8. © Daniel Greene 2012
AURAL-TO-VISUAL ENGLISH
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9. © Daniel Greene 2012
INTERPRETATION VS.
TRANSLITERATION
Interpretation Transliteration
•Decodes message from
source language; encodes
into target language.
•Encodes message from
source mode; encodes into
target mode.
•Deals with oral-aural and/
or visual-gestural
languages, e.g. French-to-
English or English-to-ASL.
•Represents the same
sounds in different visual
media, e.g. Hebrew alef-
bet–to–Roman alphabet or
aural English–to–visual
English.
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10. © Daniel Greene 2012
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
•Turn aural English into visible
oral & manual English using
their mouths, facial
expressions, body language,
and gestures!
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11. © Daniel Greene 2012
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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12. © Daniel Greene 2012
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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13. © Daniel Greene 2012
ORAL INTERPRETING DEMO
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14. © Daniel Greene 2012
THE PERCENTAGE MYTH
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30%
40%
Less than half
4 out of 10
30–
40%
28%
26%
25–30%
1/3–1/4
(sic)
15–25%
20%
23%

15. © Daniel Greene 2012
IF IT AIN’T
BROKE,
DON’T FIX IT!
Why reinvent the wheel when
that’s the way it rolls?
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16. © Daniel Greene 2012
OT DON’T’S
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Chew
gum
Sign or
“teach”
Hair
covering
face
Smile
while
mouthing
Whisper
Thrust
tongue on
L and Th
Move
head too
much
Contrast
colors
Finger-
spelling
Distracting
background
Reflections

17. © Daniel Greene 2012
OT DO’S
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Natural
phrasing
Lipread
Natural
gestures
Mouth
slower
Lipstick
Distinguish
B & M
Write
in air
Space
& role
shifting

18. © Daniel Greene 2012
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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19. © Daniel Greene 2012
BEWARE THE -ISMS & -ISTS
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20. © Daniel Greene 2012
THINGS TO WATCH FOR
•Observe differences/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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21. © Daniel Greene 2012
ASL INTERPRETERS VS.
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
ASL InterpretersOral Transliterators
•Mouth ASL (pah, mm).•Mouth English only.
•Sign while mouthing.•Do not distract with sign.
•Might not know how to
mouth without signing.
•Know how to mouth
without signing.
•Might want to teach oral
people sign language.
•Don’t try to teach oral
people sign language.
•Might think oral deaf are
opposed to Deaf culture.
•Respect oral deaf clients’
choice not to use ASL.
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22. © Daniel Greene 2012
SPEAKERS VS.
ORAL TRANSLITERATORS
Speakers Oral Transliterators
•Might not mouth words
carefully enough.
•Use their expertise to
mouth words clearly.
•Might turn their backs
while they are speaking.
•Face clients directly at all
times.
•Might have hard-to-read
accents, speech patterns.
•Mouth clearly even if the
speaker doesn’t
•Might have pale lips or
heavy facial hair obscuring
their mouth.
•Wear a bit of lip color and/
or trim their facial hair.
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23. © Daniel Greene 2012
CART VS.
OT
CART Oral Transliterators
•Letters on a flat screen•Expressive human beings
•Limited to no interaction
with captionist
•Accessible for clarification
& feedback
•Limited portability•Go anywhere people fit
•Captionist not trained in
understanding deaf
people’s speech
•Used to deaf speech and
can repeat it clearly
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24. © Daniel Greene 2012
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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25. © Daniel Greene 2012
CONTACT ME
www.terptrans.com
[email protected]
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