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What is the best method for blind people | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| AlexBlackman Newbie Australia Joined 5291 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 13 20 March 2011 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi
What methods could you recommend for a blind or partially sighted person to learn a foreign language. I am researching this for a Chinese friend who's learning English, but as it's a rather niche topic, experiences from any language are welcome.. Edited by AlexBlackman on 20 March 2011 at 2:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5163 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 2 of 13 20 March 2011 at 2:16am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Large cities have a Braille library; they might have Braille versions of some lesson
plans. Another option is to concentrate on online material and use all electronic tools available to help the blind. Podcasts are great and the pdf could be read with a Braille display. Many Bluetooth Braille displays can even be paired with iPods! Edited by Arekkusu on 20 March 2011 at 2:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5200 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 3 of 13 20 March 2011 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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As Arekkusu mentioned, podcasts and other audio based materials are an absolute must.
Braille libraries can be of some limited use, but there seems not to be many materials around in Braille for learning modern languages, however, organisations for blind people like the RNIB here in the UK, may have electronic textbooks. These will usually be in Microsoft Word .doc format and can be read either with Braille displays or by using screen reading software. It is probably possible however to make requests for these texts to be printed out in Braille. My father has had good success with language learning as a blind person and has reached a high level in French and Italian and an intermediate level in German by using a combination of podcasts, Michel Thomas courses and from reading websites with computer based dictionaries handy. Hopefully your friend will have decent access to materials and I hope he does well in his studies. Edited by jazzboy.bebop on 20 March 2011 at 2:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AlexBlackman Newbie Australia Joined 5291 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 13 20 March 2011 at 3:41am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Braille displays seem very useful to teach spelling, and though China is poor, I'm sure schools for the blind have at least one. Thanks for the idea, I hadn't thought of it. Podcasts seem a good idea, I'll ask my sighted Chinese friends for suggestions,
Yes, audio material is very very very very important... screen readers too, but I'd definitely caution my friend against mimicking the electronic voice Can you or your father recommend any dictionary software which works well with screen readers? Unfortunately, English-language braille material is very hard to get in China, and it seems there is very little good language learning material in Chinese braille, hence the need for me to do this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| jazzboy.bebop Senior Member Norway norwegianthroughnove Joined 5200 days ago 439 posts - 800 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian | Message 5 of 13 20 March 2011 at 4:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I'll ask him about it and see what he uses dictionary wise, though it could be online dictionaries he uses rather than software, he hasn't really told me too much about it. Most online dictionaries will probably work fine with most screen readers as their interfaces are usually quite rudimentary. I'm sure there will be some good online English-Chinese dictionaries out there your friend could check out. My father is busy this weekend though so I'll find out for you on Monday regarding any software he might use for dictionaries. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Edited by jazzboy.bebop on 20 March 2011 at 4:12am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AlexBlackman Newbie Australia Joined 5291 days ago 11 posts - 13 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 13 20 March 2011 at 6:21am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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much appreciated
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5793 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 13 20 March 2011 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think there's a Pimsleur English for Chinese speakers. I'm not a massive fan of Pimsleur, but it does have its uses.
Another thing which should be quite handy is a piece of software called Gradint. If you get examples of words and phrases you want to learn in your target language and record prompts in your native language, it will generate automatic lessons, presenting and revising the phrases at increasing intervals. (The author says this is based on Paul Pimsleur's original formula, which isn't followed exactly by the current courses.) I reckon it's only because I plugged a quarter of the audio from my Welsh course into Gradint that I passed the exam. I hadn't studied enough, and once I had the lessons as MP3 I could just cram loads. But you don't have to cram with Gradint. If you supply it with the samples in a structured order, you can actually learn quite intelligently. It seems to pick the samples out in alphabetical order of filename, so don't just dump everything in together in one go. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| RogerK Triglot Groupie Austria Joined 4857 days ago 92 posts - 181 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian Studies: Portuguese | Message 8 of 13 20 March 2011 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hi Alex, You could call the Blind Institute in your capital city. I went to an open day at the institute for the blind in Bundoora, Melbourne a few years ago and spoke to a blind lady who spoke numerous languages. She only said that she had studied languages at uni and not directly with the institute but I'm confident they will either have materials or be able to point you in the right direction. Roger 1 person has voted this message useful |
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