Handout for

TEACHING ENGLISH TO

BLIND REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS

SHARON MONTHEI

BLIND, Inc.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The importance of immigrants and refugee statuses

  • Refugees are eligible for SSI immediately, for state or federally funded rehabilitation programs, for adult basic education, public housing, and healthcare.
  • Immigrants are not eligible for SSI for 5 years. They are eligible for state or federally funded rehabilitation programs and for mainstream adult basic education, and public housing. Whether they are eligible for healthcare depends upon the state.
  • Persons granted Asylum are eligible for SSI, Medicaid, public housing, and rehabilitation services. However, persons in the process of getting Asylum status are not eligible for SSI, but they are eligible for rehabilitation services, and emergency healthcare.
  • Illegal residents are not eligible for state or federally funded programs. They are eligible for Adult Basic Education and mainstream ELL programs.They may or may not be eligible for public healthcare services beyond emergency services.

Challenges for Blind New English learners in traditional ELL programs

Currently, teachers of the English language use pictures, diagrams, mime, and gestures as well as spoken English in their classrooms. These methods do not work well for blind students.

Even if books are available in Braille, they often do not work well for blind students, because of the prevalence of pictures, drawings, and diagrams.

These teachers teach reading and writing print as they teach English. This has proven to be the most effective way to do it. Even if Braille is available, there is rarely anyone in these programs who knows Braille in order to teach it. Braille is literacy for blind persons just as print is literacy for sighted students.

What equipment do new English learners need?

  • White cane
  • Braille writer
  • Braille slate
  • Braille paper
  • Recording device with long-playing capability

After the first few months and when computer instruction begins.

  • portable Computer with adaptive software

They will need this in order to use in mainstream ELL classes to write so that they can receive feedback from their teachers. They need to be able to touch type and use a word processor to write and edit documents in class.

Resources:

Websites with relevant information

Kaizen: Program for New English Learners with Visual Limitations

phone: (206) 784-5619

email:

web: /

BLIND, Inc.

Web:

e-mail:

(has information about testing for ELL students)

(has many exercises for ESL students)

(one thousand most common words)

Publishers of ESL materials I have found helpful.

What It Takes to Teach Blind Immigrants

For anyone undertaking the teaching of blind immigrants, it is necessary to have braille transcription available, knowledge of teaching Braille to adults, background in teaching English to Immigrants, and a good working relationship with local English Language Learner programs.

General Information about teaching ENGLISH to Immigrants and refugees

Best practices for teaching English involve a combination of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Therefore learning Braille is highly desirable for English language learners who are legally or functionally blind. For those with some sight, it is tempting to give them CCTV’s, large white boards, etc. but unless the student can read at a competitive rate for long periods of time, this is not such a good idea.

Best practices also include a multi-sensory approach, which means the sound of speech, touch, smell, perhaps taste, moving around to learn concepts, music, as well as print or Braille.

Most of all, acquiring a language involves communicating with others, not simply memorizing pat speeches.

It is generally known that acquiring survival English takes approximately two years for students taking classes. It takes from seven to fifteen years to acquire enough English to attend college. Most adult English programs have six levels, and students can take anywhere from six months to two years to complete a level.

There is no method of determining learning disabilities of new English learners at this time, sighted or blind. Unfortunately, sometimes students without adequate English skills are thought to be learning disabled.

Most immigrants who arrive as adults do not complete a GED because of the length of time required to get it, and because of their need to work and carry on family life. This is important to know when working with the children of immigrants.