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Language learning with disability | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 1 of 8 29 March 2011 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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AlexBlackman raised a very important issue in the recent thread "What is the best method for blind people?". And it certainly got me thinking...how DO you approach learning a new language if you're blind or visually impaired? What if you're deaf, experience learning difficulties, or have any other disabilities?
If it's ok with moderators, I'd like to make this post a starting point for people facing these issues who are interested in learning languages, in the hope that they or their friends and family can find the information and resources they need quickly. So let me get the ball rolling with a tipsheet I found recently online from Mobility International that offers lots of useful links and information for both students and teachers, and a website that sells large print bilingual books and audiobooks: Foreign Language Learning and Students with Disabilities (MIUSA) Bilingual Audiobooks and Large Print Bilingual Books (Mutilingualbookstore via Lulu) Edited by Teango on 29 March 2011 at 4:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5851 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 8 29 March 2011 at 7:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am not strictly seen as visually handicapped, because my eyesight tests with glasses are OK, but I have reading problems with small letter prints. I have already thrown away some older dictionaries because the print size was too small to read them comfortably.
I print out all my private printouts in font size 14 and 16 because this allows me to read them comfortably without changing glasses. Before I decide to buy a dictionary, I first check out how big the letter size is, otherwise I wouldn't invest money in it. For example I have a preference for dictionaries, where the keywords are printed in blue, while the normal text is written in black. I really appreciate our latest reading project in my Danish course. We read the children's book "Emil fra Lönneberg" and the copies are printed in font size 16, which is excellent for me to read. I am complaining especially about dictionaries but also about interesting foreign language magazines, which are printed in font size 9 - 10, which is too small for me te read. Therfore I would not buy such language products. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 29 March 2011 at 7:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5673 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 8 29 March 2011 at 7:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Until last year, I was blind in one eye, and had poor sight in the other. Even large-
print books were often too small for me, and I relied on lots of audio material. Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine I now have good - although not excellent - vision in both eyes. It strikes me that the iPad would have been the greatest device imaginable when my eyesight was very poor - due to its fantastic support for zooming into and out of documents. It is very simple, and quick, to zoom in to a font size much larger than large-print books. I still really benefit from the iPad (since much print is still too small for me) - but a year or more ago, it would have been a God-send. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 4 of 8 29 March 2011 at 7:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Fasulye
I completely agree with checking out the font size of a book before buying these days. It's not always so easy to work this out from the product details given on a website like Amazon, but if you can download a sample page or "look inside", it's possible to calculate the size of the font on the basis of the given product dimensions (e.g. 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm), or alternatively compare the number of pages in other publications. Avoiding eye strain and reading comfortably is very important. I recall going into Thalia in search of some classic German novels not so long ago, and they had shelf upon shelf of little yellow pocket books in something close to size 8. I remember thinking to myself, "you'd need a Deerstalker and massive magnifying glass to read those!". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5851 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 8 29 March 2011 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | ||
It's not only the font size which counts for me, but also the contrast is important and the space between the lines. I can read more easily, if there is more space between the lines and, if the text isn't printed in light grey. Therefore I really like to browse through a real book in my hands to check whether I - visually - can read it well. To give an example of a book which annoys me visually: Langenscheidt Taschenwörterbuch Dänisch - Deutsch / Deutsch - Dänisch - This bilingual dictionary is written in fontsize 8 / 9 with the keywords in dark black. As I prefer paper dictionaries, I have no alternative to this book - but it's no fun for me using it. If I have longer texts, where I have to look up more words, it's really exhausting! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 29 March 2011 at 8:35pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5560 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 7 of 8 29 March 2011 at 9:09pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm really glad about this. :) And I must confess, it's hard to pass by an Apple store at the weekend without taking at least a sneak peak at one of their iPad2 demo models, just for a stolen minute or so whilst my better half's emptying my credit card in Jane Norman. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Luai_lashire Diglot Senior Member United States luai-lashire.deviant Joined 5832 days ago 384 posts - 560 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto Studies: Japanese, French | Message 8 of 8 05 April 2011 at 10:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a very unusual disability, so much so it doesn't have a wikipedia page! XD It's almost always a symptom
of a larger disorder/part of extensive brain damage, and usually more extreme than what I have, so I haven't been able to find an expert to help me with it yet (need to do more searching). It's called Executive Dysfunction and it's very hard to explain really what it is, but basically it causes something to go wrong between the step where you plan or decide to do something and the step where you actually carry it out. This can take various forms, where I get distracted before I do something, where I begin to do something but end up doing something different (going on "autopilot"), where I simply can't overcome inertia or can't focus on the task. As an example, maybe I want to eat lunch. First I have to actually get up, so I make an effort to think about doing that, but no matter how much I think about it, it doesn't happen. For me this usually doesn't last too long, I can usually get up within ten minutes, I just have to focus in exactly the right way. Then I go to the kitchen, and on the way I am at risk of encountering something that will trigger a routine or getting distracted. If I make it to the kitchen, I then have to figure out what the first step of getting lunch is, and carry that out. For me, most cooking tasks I can run on autopilot so once I get started, I'm good to go, but some people with EXD can have trouble with stopping in the middle or carrying out the wrong steps (for example, getting out all the ingredients and then putting them away again, or sticking your food in the fridge instead of the oven). Everything takes a great deal of concentration and I have to constantly list to myself the steps involved. When it's really bad, even tiny things like "move your arm" become separate steps. As I said, I don't have it as bad as most people, so I usually only struggle with tasks that stress me, or when I'm experiencing extreme general stress. Unfortunately, language learning is a stressful task- hell, even switching from one activity to the next causes me stress- so it can be difficult to make myself do it, even if I'll be happier once I've done it. Some things I've found helpful are: 1. Making a language study routine. If it's routine, I can learn to do it on autopilot, and then the only tricky part is starting. Starting an autopilot routine is easiest by connecting it to a triggering object (like "pick up cheese = make a quesadilla") so I got a notebook and pen that are just for kanji, and I'm working on using that to trigger studying new kanji. 2. Doing it every single day. Once I've built up a chain, it becomes fun to make that keep going, and more stressful to break it, so NOT doing it becomes more stressful than doing it; and besides this, I find that if I DO miss a day, it's easier to start up again right away if I've been doing it regularly than if it's been sporadic. 3. Try to reduce all other types of stress, such as stressful thoughts ("I really suck at katakana!"), stressful environment, outstanding commitments that are worrying you, lack of food/sleep/etc. When you're happier in general, you're happier studying. 4. Reinforce the idea that studying isn't hard. If I let myself think kanji study is hard and takes a long time, I find it more difficult to do it. If I remind myself that it's actually pretty easy and takes no more than 10 minutes, there's no longer any reason to avoid it. 5. Keep asking myself all day long whether or not there's anything left to do. If I tried once earlier in the day to do it, and got distracted or something, I need to make another attempt. For this reason I am always running over mental checklists of important daily tasks, so nothing gets forgotten. If I have to make four or five attempts before it gets done, then so be it, as long as it gets done! Besides this, I also have social phobia, which makes it very hard to practice speaking and meet new exchange partners. I haven't got any advice for this because I haven't yet conquered it myself. >.<; 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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