Sounding Board

The best way to access lectures

Enquiry: Since I had my implant and everything is getting better, I do hear a lot of voices more and If i have an interpreter (BSL) the lectures voices goes over the top and watching the interpreter at the same time gets confusing so, I went from that to lip-speaker and still hearing the lecture at the same time gets confusing too. I have FM system, and that makes the voice louder. If I had none of these 2 support (lipspeaker or interpreter) and just follow the lecture myself but have a note taker along with it just makes me so tired trying' to keep up.

If i took my implant off and watched the lip-speaker/interpreter it made it easier. I don't get confused because I don't hear the lecture voice, which is not a good idea as I don't want to get to a stage where I don't wear my implant at all because I like it so much.
Reply: You describe the difficulties you are having so clearly. If you are trying to look at sign language and listen at the same time, it’s not surprising that it is confusing. You are talking about three different methods:

• 1)Looking at the BSL interpreter (perhaps with your implant turned off because this is easier) plus a note-taker. The easiest way but it doesn’t allow you to practice your listening skills.
• 2)Looking at a lip-speaker and perhaps listening through an FM system plus a note-taker – hard work because you are looking at one set of lips and listening to a sound coming from somewhere else which will be slightly ahead of the lip-speaker.
• 3)Listening to the lecturer (probably through an FM system as this should give the best input) and a note-taker. This would help you to improve your listening skills but is very tiring.

You clearly want to continue to improve your listening skills but you must also be able to follow what your lecturers are saying otherwise the whole situation becomes very stressful and you might get behind with your work!
Some lecturers will be much easier to follow than others both for deaf and for hearing students. This might be because you find the work easier, or because the lecturer’s style of presentation is easier to follow. Perhaps you could decide on one or two lectures a week where you will listen to the lecturer. Choose a lecturer who you feel is a good communicator and where the work is not too difficult so you will stand a good chance of following a lot of what he or she says. It will be a tiring lecture but you will have the notes so it won’t matter if you don’t get every little thing. For the other lectures just use the BSL interpreter so that you can relax and concentrate on the subject.
If you find that you are doing quite well in the listening only lectures, you may want to try it in one or two other lectures but start with a small number so that you do not get too tired and anxious. If you are feeling stressed, communication is never easy so it is important to feel comfortable with what you are doing.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to practice listening, not least on line.. See the next Sounding Board monthly email for some useful websites.

Posted on January 15, 2010 17:25