Lipreading Olympics

Watching the gymnasts doing amazing things on bars and beams during the Olympic Games, I mainly wonder why people want to do these things.

But I also listen to the commentators, who tell me what is good or bad about certain performances. Those commentators see things, that I don’t. They recognize specific elements in a performance, and can somehow see that a knee was bent, a hand was misplaced, while I just see one stream of movements.

Same as with expert and beginner lipreaders? Experts see things, that beginners don’t?

On TV, they help me by re-playing exercises in slow motion and telling me what I’m supposed to see. Ah, now I see it! Yes, that knee was bent, that hand was misplaced!

Does that mean that I will see it myself, the next time? Probably not at normal speed, but once I know what to look out for, I expect I will be able to see it in slow motion, the next time. And after a lot of practice, I will get as good as the judges or the commentators! That’s how they learned, too, didn't they? Hundreds (thousands?) of hours of watching, and being told what to look out for?

I wonder if it helps judges and commentators to see the small differences between one performance and the next, if they can ‘do’ (or could do) these exercises, themselves. Does it make it easier to judge these performances, to see the small differences, if you can do (or could do, or have tried to do) these jumps and flicks and twists, yourself?  

Beginner lipreaders see just one stream of mouth-movements. Experts see words and sentences. So for the beginners, we play videos of speakers in slow-motion, and tell them what to look out for. Again and again. First in slow motion, then at normal speed.

And maybe we ask beginners to pronounce the words and phrases, themselves. So that they know what to look out for, when  someone else uses these words or phrases. That’s why most lipreading teachers tell lipreaders to practice in front of a mirror. 

Instead of a mirror, we can use a webcam. We can ask the lipreader to record him/herself and to play the video in slow-motion, to learn to see and feel the sometimes tiny differences between one pattern, one word or phrase, and the next.

Will that help? Will that make expert lipreaders of us all?

Watch this space, we'll let you know!