World News for Students of English

08-07-2020 07:00

Approximately 48 million people have some degree of hearing loss. Ordinary masks muffle our voice, and it may be worth considering masks with clear windows.

When you wear such a mask, people can see your lips, which can be helpful for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Window masks make it possible to lipread and to see facial expressions.

Alicia Austin teaches infants and children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Currently, Austin has many online lessons with her students, and she says that wearing a mask can make communication very difficult. Austin says that children need to see facial expressions and recognition in order to learn, regardless of hearing abilities.

There are more benefits to window masks. They can be very helpful also to people with diminished hearing, typically older people or grandparents, who rely on face-to-face interaction to understand

Difficult words: muffle (to make a sound quieter and less clear), lipread (to watch someone’s lip movements in order to understand what he is saying), diminished (smaller or reduced).

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