Teaching English to the visually-impaired: a handbook for brazilian teachers

Abstract

Both e-book and audio book were designed from the experience a group of sighted undergraduates in pre-service and I, the professor of the discipline Applied Linguistics, had in an English language extension course for people with visual impairment held at the Federal University of Technology – Paraná. For five semesters, starting in March 2014, our classroom became an environment in which visually impaired students, sighted undergraduates in pre-service and I learned and taught each other how to use Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Assistive Technologies for the Blind in order to establish communication, and thus, teach/learn the English language. At the end of the course, the group decided to compile the didactic material developed and prepared collectively, especially for visually impaired people; hence, the idea of these e-book and audio-book was conceived. The e-book is a handbook for the teacher, in which we describe in detail what and how we work each topic; while the audio-book was recorded for visually impaired students with oral activities and explanations of grammar. The e-book gives indications as to how the teacher can use audio-book exercises. Therefore, the two books should be used in complementarity.