City Lit’s trainee lipreading teachers celebrated in virtual party style on the final day of their course as they became the first ever lipreading teachers to qualify online.
The trainee teachers were two thirds of the way through their 10 month course at City Lit when lockdown struck. Teacher trainers Fiona Pickett and Lorraine Braggins enabled them to complete their teaching practice online by devising ways in which various lipreading exercises could transfer to the small screen and the teaching be assessed.
Lorraine Braggins, Head of Progamme for Lipreading and acquired hearing loss, said: “Not only does teaching lipreading online present many challenges, but most of the trainee teachers have a hearing loss themselves. So they are not only juggling the delivery of their material and how they are including and assessing deaf and hard of hearing learners, but also at the same time reading the captions which they rely on to understand what their students are saying. We were incredibly impressed with the way all the trainees rose to the challenge.”
Having to put the teacher training online has not only enabled those trainees to complete their course, but it has been the catalyst for finding new and creative ways to train lipreading teachers in the future. The team will now deliver at least the first 3 months of the next course online, aiming to provide a blend of online and classroom learning over the duration of the whole course. They are hoping that this could also enable more people to train, as it reduces the cost of fares and accommodation in London. There is a desperate countrywide shortage of lipreading teachers - and hence a shortage of classes to teach many of the estimated 11 million people in the U.K. with hearing loss. City Lit launched the Hear My Lips campaign to train more teachers nationwide when it celebrated its centenary in 2019.
Lorraine Braggins said: “It’s also likely there will be a trend towards learning lipreading online in the future – not replacing face-to-face classes, but as an alternative or additional offer. So training new teachers to have the skills and experience to deliver online lessons could open up new opportunities for them. We congratulate the newly qualified lipreading teachers on their tremendous achievement and wish them all the very best in their new careers.”
Applications are now being accepted for the next course starting September 2020.
For more details contact: lipreading@citylit.ac.uk
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