ALC Newsletter - 09/17/2012 (Plain Text Version)
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A UNIQUE ESL EXPERIENCE: A VISUALLY IMPAIRED TEACHER TEACHING ESL TO VISUALLY IMPAIRED LEARNERS
From NileTESOL Motivated and successful ESL professionals seek and seize every possible opportunity of professional development and do their best to translate what they learn into actual and successful classroom practices. It is incumbent upon all ESL professionals to attend relevant seminars and conventions, to read and participate in ESL journals and discussions, and to share their experiences with colleagues to continually grow and maintain their career success. We were motivated to write this article following a presentation we gave at the 2012 TESOL Convention; the presentation appealed to everyone who attended it and it was suggested that we present it again and write a report about it. The presentation title is titled “A Unique ESL Experience: A Visually Impaired Teacher (VIT) Teaching ESL to Visually Impaired Learners (VILs).” We discuss in detail the first of the three main parts of the unique ESL experience as presented in the conference: what was done before ESL teaching to visually impaired learners, what was done during, and what happened after that experience. As for the second and third parts of this presentation, links to video recordings of the presentation are provided at the end of this article. BEFORE SALAMA STARTED TEACHING The whole story started when Salama joined a TEFL course at the MA TEFL program at the American University in Cairo; the course is entitled “511: Methods of Teaching a Foreign Language II.” This course is a continuation of another course called “510: Methods of Teaching a Foreign Language I,” which is a prerequisite to 511. Salama had to choose a school where he could apply what he learned in 510 and where he could accomplish the tasks required for the 511 course. Salama’s mentor, Gabriel, was excited as a result of Salama’s choice to teach ESL at El-Nour Wa Al-Amal Secondary School for Girls (translated as “Light & Hope High School for Girls”). Both Salama and Gabriel felt they were about to explore a new territory in the world of ESL and they met for long hours and discussed the challenges they expected to meet and the approaches they would adopt to meet such challenges. FOUR CHALLENGES AND THREE APPROACHES Salama and his mentor expected to meet four challenges when Salama started teaching ESL to the high school VI girls. The first challenge was that Salama did not want the learners to learn about English but to learn English―to use the language and do something or a number of things with it. He wanted the language he was planning to teach to be part of the learners’ tacit knowledge: something that they can enjoying receiving, succeed in retaining, and spontaneously or automatically retrieve and use. Salama studied a lot of theories related to second language acquisition, but all the theories, readings, and applications made no mention of visually impaired learners, so he had to plan a lot of accommodation and adaptation to effectively apply what he learned and meet these learners’ needs. The third challenge is the learning culture rampant in governmental schools including the school Salama would do his teaching practice at. The majority of the learners and their teachers unfortunately focus on learning what, rather than learning how. Salama and his mentor wanted to empower the learners and provide them with strategic learning and learner autonomy, and of course Salama expected to face some resistance. The fourth challenge is related to assessment; Salama experienced the great gains of reflective learning and teaching in addition to self-assessment and he wanted his learners to do the same. Ironically Salama wanted his visually impaired learners to constantly keep an eye on their learning and steer it in the right direction. Salama and his mentor agreed on three approaches to deal with these four challenges. These approaches are Salama reflecting on his own experience as a learner of English, reading related literature, and observing other teachers. As for the first approach, Salama’s mentor asked him to remember how he learned English; however, Salama’s learning context was different from that of the girls he would teach. Salama remembered that his language teachers were kind, warm, encouraging, and supportive and he planned to do his best to be so with the learners he would teach. The second approach was reading the related literature and browsing relevant Web sites to get as many useful ideas as possible. Salama read extensively and took notes using the recording facility on his computer. Below are some of his conclusions:
The third approach Salama decided on was to visit other teachers in action and take notes on effective practices to emulate and negative ones to avoid. Salama spent 10 hours of class observation visiting three different teachers. The pluses or merits Salama observed were mainly two: Teachers enjoyed a high sense of humor, which is essential to make sure the learners are involved and following the teacher, and they also had a good rapport with the learners. The negative points numbered eight:
Point one refers to depending mainly on Bloom’s taxonomy LOTS, or lower order thinking skills, such as knowledge and comprehension with very little reference made to application. The teachers dealing with visually impaired learners subconsciously assumed that their learners need to do cognitively easy tasks and should not be challenged with HOTS or higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, or evaluation. As a visually impaired professional, Salama himself felt that was indirectly and unintentionally offensive because visually impaired learners should be given the opportunities to reach their full potential in the realm of learning. As for point two, Salama was shocked to know that one of the classes he observed was equipped with computers, but unfortunately these computers were not used at all. Salama was sorry for that because technology for the visually impaired is the main channel to access the external world and learning. Point three refers to the teachers’ ignoring of using real objects and therefore not using the sense of touch. Visually impaired learners have a sharp sense of touch as they read Braille mainly using their tactile skills, and underusing such skills in language teaching is neither justified nor accepted. Point four refers to teachers’ lecturing all the time; teachers focused mainly on utilizing the learners’ listening and spent much of their classroom instructional time talking. The fifth minus Salama observed was that the learners seldom left their seats or did any movement and this indeed affects kinesthetic learners, some of whom are visually impaired. Point six refers to the excessive use of Arabic, L1 in this context. Salama believes that the learners’ first language could be used only in rare instances while teaching English. The teachers Salama observed used Arabic a lot and this resulted in the students learning about English, not learning English. The teachers were also interested in explaining grammar using Arabic, which resonates with the obsolescent approach of grammar-translation language-teaching method. Point seven refers to the absence of both pair and group work; therefore, there was neither any collaborative language learning nor any communication among the learners in the target language. The last point refers to inappropriate feedback problems: learners’ errors were corrected all the time and in an embarrassing manner. Teacher never thought of being eclectic or selective regarding the type, timing, and manner of error correction and this definitely discouraged the learners and negatively influenced their motivation. For more details on Salama’s observation in addition to the other parts of this interesting experience plus other useful additions, please view these slides: Report of Class Observations and PowerPoint presentation. VIDEO LINKS Presentation at TESOL:Part 1, Part
2, Part 3, Part
4, Part
5 SUGGESTED READING Carson, J. E., Carrell, P. L., Silberstein, S., Kroll, B., & Kuehh, P. A. (1990). Reading-writing relationships in first and second language. TESOL Quarterly, 24, 245-266. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of a theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Corn, A. L., Hatlen, P., Huebner, K. M., Ryan, F., & Siller, M. A. (1995). The national agenda for the education of children and youths with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities. New York, NY: AFB Press. Cummins, J. (1981). The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 3-49). Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University. Cummins, J. (1981b). The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In California State Department of Education (Ed.). Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical rationale (pp. 3-49). Los Angeles. CA: California State University. Cummins, J. (1984). Bilingualism and special education: Issues in assessment and pedagogy. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. Cummins, J. (1989). A theoretical framework for bilingual special education. Exceptional Children, 56, 111-119. Fraiburg, S. (1977). Insights from the blind. New York, NY: Basic Books. Frantz, R. S., & Wexler, J. (1994). Ulpan: Functional ESOL immersion program for special education students. Paper presented at the 28th annual meeting of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Baltimore. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 371 634) Garman, M. (1983). The investigation of vision in language development. In A. E. Mills (Ed.), Language acquisition in the blind child: Normal and deficient (pp. 162-166). San Diego, CA: College-Hill Press. Goldman, S. R., & Trueba, H. T. (Eds.). (1987). Becoming literate in English as a second language. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Guinan, H. (1997). ESL for students with visual impairments. Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, 91(6), 555-563. Holbrook, M. C., & Koenig, A. J. (1992). Teaching braille reading to students with low vision. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 86, 44-48. Huebner, K. M. (1986). Curricular adaptations. In G. T. Scholl (Ed.), Foundations of education for blind and visually handicapped children and youth: Theory and practice (pp. 381-384). New York, NY: American Foundation for the Blind. Krashen, S. D. (1982). Principles and practices in second language acquisition. New York, NY: Pergamon Press. Mulford, R. (1983). Referential development in blind children. In A. E. Mills (Ed.), Language acquisition in the blind child: Normal and deficient (pp. 89-107). San Diego, CA: College-Hill Press. Munoz, M. L. (1998). Language assessment and intervention with children who have visual impairments: A guide for speech-language pathologists. Austin, TX: Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Nikolic, T. (1987). Teaching a foreign language in a school for blind and visually impaired children. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 81, 62-66. Ovando, C., & Collier, V. (1985). Bilingual and ESL classrooms: Teaching in multicultural contexts. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Snyder, T. (1972). Teaching English as a second language to blind people. New Outlook for the Blind, 66(6), 161-166. Tempes, F. (1982). A theoretical framework for bilingual instruction: How does it apply to students in special education? Washington, DC: ERIC National Institute of Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 239 452) Warren, D. H. (1994). Blindness and children. An individual differences approach. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Weiss, J. (1980). Braille and limited language skills. Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness, 84, 81-83. Werth, P. (1983) Meaning in language acquisition. In A. E. Mills (Ed.), Language acquisition in the blind child: Normal and deficient (pp. 77-88). San Diego, CA: College-Hill Press. Williams, C. B. (1991). Teaching Hispanic deaf students: Lessons from Luis. Perspectives in Education and Deafness, 10(2), 2-5. Wu, Y. (1994). Teaching English as a foreign language to blind children: A progress report. The Educator, 7, 6-9. SUGGESTED READING ONLINE
Raafat . A. Gabriel is currently working as a program manager at the English Studies Division, School of Continuing Education, American University in Cairo (AUC). Gabriel also works as a TEFL teacher and teacher trainer at the same place. In addition to 20 years of TEFL experience, Gabriel has a BA in English pedagogy an MA in TEFL from AUC and is currently earning an EdD at Aspen University. Salama M. Salama is currently working as the manager of academic affairs and English studies at Zohor Elyasmin Language School. After getting a BA in English linguistics and an MA in TEFL from the American University in Cairo, Salama has been a TEFL teacher, teacher trainer, trainer of trainers, curriculum designer, and consultant for visually impaired learners. |
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