page from 'The Adventures of Little Nutbrown Hare'
de Sam McBratney
Throughout the years that I taught English to the blind I had to answer many
questions asked by people who had no experience dealing with the blind.
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How do you describe colours to the blind?
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Are colours important to them? Are they fashion conscious?
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How do you teach poetry to them?
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How do they conceive concepts?
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Can they learn science?
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Do you know how to read Braille?
Of all the subjects teaching English to the blind is the easiest.
Having said
so there are one or two things teachers who are not trained to teach the blind
may need to know before they can be an effective teacher to a blind student.
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Understanding degrees of blindness
First and foremost the teachers have to understand the visual condition of their
blind student. The teachers do not need to understand the medical implication of
the blind student's blindness, just how much residual vision he or she has.
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Is he or she totally blind?
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Does he or she have some sight left that he or she may be able to read
big print.
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Eighty percent of learning is through sight.
Whatever amount of residual vision that is left of a blind person should be
utilised to the maximum. So students with partial vision should be encouraged to
read big print books.
Understanding the background
The next thing to do is to learn the background of the student. How and when he
or she became blind. If the blind student became blind when he or she was, for
example, at the age of eight or nine, he or she has certain visual memory. He or
she will conceive ideas and images differently from someone who was blind at
birth.
Setting up a readers service
When confronted with a totally blind student do not despair. Read teaching
material to the blind student and get him or her to Braille the material before
lessons. The problem of a shortage of material in Braille has always plagued
teachers for the blind.
Textbooks could never be brailled in time for my blind students. I always had
to cope with one chapter at a time. But from my experience I can say that
setting up a readers service for the blind is never too difficult. Just spread
the word that there is a need for a pool of volunteers to read books into tapes
or to blind students and there will be many volunteers.
Technological help
Also, nowadays there is computer software that is able to download material
and transcribe it into Braille dots. The machine for brailling out the dots is
quite expensive though. Not knowing Braille is the least problem of teachers who
are not specially trained to teach the blind. Technology can overcome that
problem. Blind students can be trained to use the computer. There is sound
synthesis software such as text to speech and voice recognition that can be
installed on the computer. This software varies in price from but there are a
number of programs which can be downloaded for free.
In the classroom
When in the classroom the blind student cannot see the board so the teacher has
to be more vocal and say out every word he or she puts on the board including
direction of where the words are. For example, teaching the format of a letter
say out, 'On the left hand corner of your page you write the address. The
address of this college is number twenty-nine, Green Lane'. Remember the blind
student cannot see the board but he or she can hear well. When plans or diagrams
are used, you can emboss them for your students by sticking string to cardboard.
Here teachers may have to use their ingenuity.
Reactions of other students
I also tell teachers that the blind students in the class should not disrupt the
lessons too much, meaning that the teacher should carry on as usual except for
slight adjustments. Having a blind student in the midst of sighted students
brings out the best of the sighted students. I have seen many sighted students
come forward willingly to help their blind classmates and they even take the
blind students on outings around the town. Things generally work out fine. One
of my blind students was the top student of the graduating class.
Teaching tips
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I have used talking books and taped dialogues for reading comprehension
lessons.
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I use real objects in my lessons. I brought in kites when the reading
passage was about kites.
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I took my students to the kitchen and we had a lesson on how to prepare
sandwiches and how to make tea.
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I took my senior students to a lower court to record the proceeding of
court cases. I was able to do all these things because there were usually
only eight to nine students in a class.
Blind students may be visually impaired but their other senses are intact, so
teachers of the blind should utilise the other senses. Learning a language is
very much tied up with culture, exposure and experiences. Blind students may not
be able to acquire exposure and experiences the same way as sighted students. So
teachers of the blind may have to do a little more than other teachers. Bring
experiences and exposure to the blind students.
Conclusion
Well, basically, a blind student is a student first and blind or visually
impaired second. Like many others things, blind students learn the importance of
colours through their association with the sighted. The approaches towards
teaching English to blind students are the same. When a blind student is out in
the sighted world studying side by side with sighted students he or she is
usually able to adapt to his or her environment. All the teacher needs to do is
talk to the blind student and ask him or her whether there is any special
requirement.
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18.Set.2008
publicado
por
MJA
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