Hi Tony,
A difficult one there if as you say the student has only a small amount
of hearing and it smells like the videos are 'set'.
A program called MPlayer can slow down video playback but I don't know
how well it would do in terms of lipreadability or distorting audio.
It's worth a try on similar material with the student to see if it helps
at all.
I've been a HOH student trying to study language at university level and
I have supported a few HOH students doing the same in my DSO role.
With some students we've said we felt they didn't have enough residual
hearing or speech to support them on a heavily speaking/listening based
language course. I am "severely deaf" but would be wary of studying
listening based languages again after my university experience but I do
know of prelingually profoundly deaf adult-implanted cochlea implant
users who have been successful in learning multiple languages but don't
know how they were tested listening wise or how their hearing works in
realworld situations.
It is worth finding out what the breakdown is for different types of
test e.g. reading, writing, listening, speaking. Do students have to
"pass" all 4, or can they make up marks from 1?
I would talk to the academics and the student about the quality of the
video material which needs to be as high as possible for both sound
quality and if a video image quality for lipreading or other contexts.
Find out if they have "background noise added" as I struggled with not
being able to hear over the "setting the scene" background noise
admittedly on poor quality nth generation copy VHS recording. I know
sometimes variable quality YouTube videos are used.
We have had some HOH students sit audio/listening exams where they are
given 25-50% extra time and control of the playback medium within that
time. This can work well enough for the student to pass...
If the student has direct-audio-input (DAI) cables for their hearing
aids or cochlea implants this may improve the sound quality they receive
considerably. If there is an equaliser setting in the playback program
the student might be able to enhance some frequencies and reduce others
if they know enough about their residual hearing.
Another question worth asking (but might get refused) is whether the
listening material script can be read aloud by native speakers which the
student can lipread and request specific bits repeated from... I had
this for my GCSE French and German but I was refused it at university.
Good luck! I hope you manage to find enough ideas to make this work for
your student.
Natalya
On 09/11/2015 11:38, Tony Catt wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Just enquiring whether anybody has experience of supporting hearing
> impaired students who are studying on language programmes. We have a
> student who has a small amount of hearing who will be expected to
> complete a test in respect to the competency of listening to a set of
> videos. The student has received transcripts of videos in the past
> however, as the competency is listening, I wondered if anybody had any
> ideas?
>
> The student has mentioned possibility of a piece of software that can
> slow down the video soundtrack and wondered if anybody had come across this?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Tony Catt
> Disability Support Officer
> CBK113
> Binks Building
> University of Chester
> Parkgate Road
> Chester CH1 4BJ
> Tel: 01244 511550/01925 534282
> Email: [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
> Please note:
> I work on Chester campus (CBK101) on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
> I work on Warrington Campus (WMA012) on a Wednesday and every other Friday.
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