[Trainer-Talk] Teaching adults who don't speak English

[Joanna Blackwell]

If the individual you are working with has an  open Vocational Rehabilitation case, their VR counselor should pay for a translator for your lessons.
Sent from my iPhone

> On Sep 13, 2024, at 9:22 AM, Brian Vogel via Trainer-Talk <trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> What age range are we talking about here?
> 
> I'll probably be crucified for saying it, but focusing on Braille for
> adults, particularly early on, is just a huge waste of time.  I've said it
> before, and I'll say it again, but I know of very few individuals who can
> pick up any significant proficiency in Braille as adults, even if they've
> been blind for years.
> 
> I'm also a big believer, where possible, of doing any teaching for an ELL
> individual in their first language initially.  The hurdles involved in
> trying to learn anything, and technology in particular, in a language you
> do not speak are virtually certain to be insurmountably high.
> 
> You ask, "What if you don't have a lot of time to work with them and
> progress is slow because they have a ton of barriers?"  I don't take that
> as a rhetorical, and the answer to that question requires a careful
> analysis as to how much time you have and whether anything of functional
> value can be achieved within it.  For students like this the minimum time
> frame is months, many months, and if you're told you have, say, six weeks
> to work with them, sadly, the best course of action is not to do so.  You
> leave them, and yourself, with feelings of disappointment and failure
> because you simply cannot achieve anything functional in that short a
> timeframe if we're talking about someone who is a rank beginner.
> 
> In my years as a speech-language pathologist (now retired) and a tech tutor
> (ongoing) I've learned the hard way that most adult students can only take
> on so much information at one time, and it always requires more repetition
> than initially expected before basic proficiency is established.  Trying to
> make someone learn "too many things at once" often means they learn none of
> them at all, at least in a way that proves useful and helpful to them.  And
> this is when only a single language is involved.
> 
> If ever there were a case where "picking one's battles, stategically" for
> learning would be best, this one is it.
> 
> Brian
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