Learning a Foreign Language when you're Blind / Visually Impaired (at every level)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2024
- In today's video I talk about accommodations I needed to learn French in high school. Learning a language is different from anything else I have done before, and at first I was overwhelmed and didn't know what exactly I needed and how to best approach learning a new language as a person who is legally blind. Learning a language can be a very visual thing, so hopefully this video can help you have more ideas of how to make a foreign language class more accessible to you if you are blind / VI. I hope this is helpful for you, and let me know in comments if you have any questions or if you have advice for fellow visually impaired students!
It’s so interesting to finally hear someone who relates. I don’t know a single other person with vision loss
I majored in Spanish interpreting, and it was hard to adapt things sometimes. The cool thing about learning a language while blind is you’re listening, which is the hardest part of learning a language, develops a lot faster. Plus you learn quickly how to say, can you say that slowly, or I don’t understand.
Thank you so much for sharing your language learning experiences, Kay. I teach English as a second language, and I appreciate your suggested solutions. I didn't realize how much body language is used in classes. I will be sure to describe the actions I'm using or ask one of the students to describe it. I will also upload all pictures to the LMS as well and add descriptions for them.
Hi, thanks for sharing this video with us. This explains a lot why the visually challenged people might need some more time to get the hang of it. But you are perfect. ❤️
Hi, thanks for the vid. I came here as a teacher lol because I started to teach late at the school I am. I arrived on the middle of the new lockdown on my city, so I did not realize I had a blind student. I was horrified when, at the end of the class, another student told me about because I was being just "visual". (This school just forgot to tell me about, but they did a meeting before to mention this). Now, I used to teach based on visuals (describing people, dresses using presentations, jamboard, etc.) And now I am not quite sure of what ways can I use with my student. First thing is to talk to her, as you mention, but I want to know how tools can I use on my virtual classes, presentations? Docs? Another? Thanks for sharing this experience, for some of us it Is very important. Thanks 😊
I am a blind individual attempting to learn Spanish and although I am not in school, it has proven to be very challenging. A sighted person has that advantage of reading the subtitles when observing listening videos. I feel like after five months that I could’ve been so much further along if I would’ve been able to see what people are saying.
Hi I am also blind
They do because everything is obsessed with visual learning. I read a couple of articles I forgot who wrote them. These were just people who tried to help you find effective mechanisms of learning a foreign language. With the subtitles you’re not using your auditory skills, even as a cited person as it was described. In one article it’s like filtering out the important part which is the language and getting a brief interpretation of, a movie or a short story in your native language that’s with the subtitles can mean to some people especially people out there who try and describe other options and better methods of learning, a language, even for somebody who doesn’t have a disability. I am also blind. I’m sure I’ll have some dictation errors in here. Sorry about that. One of my best friends is hard of hearing in one ear and he’s totally blind. He’s a poliglott.
Kay, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! I'm an instructor and your stories affirmed a lot of the adaptations I made in my own ESL classroom for visually impaired learners, particularly saying everything that I write on the board. I'm grateful for having learners who advocated for themselves and taught me what they needed.
I'm curious if you have any experience learning languages in a virutal environment, and what platforms or assistive tools helped - also what programs, types of textbooks, e-books, e-tests, exams. tests, exercises/activities were useful or should be avoided.
I took ASL in high school, and I communicated with my teacher a lot. A lot of teachers like to move around while teaching, which is hard for me when I am trying to follow with my magnifier camera, and also because I was looking at my teacher’s hands I couldn’t see what they were doing if they were standing in front of a busy background, or were in an area with different lighting, and often after class I would clarify one on one if I didn’t get a word or something.
Could I say this is Interesting topic? Thanks for sharing it☺️
Hi, I love your video.
I am blind myself and I'am a native Hebrew speaker.
How are you recommend to improove my english in all aspects?
I am reading and writing Braille
Are you continuing your language study in college? Has any of your language study required finding native speakers to practice with? At Fluentel, we’ve built a voice-responsive “language partner phone hotline” we’re hopeful will serve visually-impaired language learners better than existing apps and services.
Hi, I’m French and I help people on Instagram with French pronunciation and vocabulary. I wonder how I could help blind people. I don’t know if it’s possible.