MASARYK UNIVERSITY

THE F A C U L T Y OF PEDAGOGY
Department of English language and literature

Lesson Planning for Visually Impaired

Students of English

Final work

Brno 2012

Supervisor: Author:
PhDr. Helena Havlíčková Mgr. Ivana Galetová
Declaration

I hereby declare that I worked on this thesis on my own and used only the

sources mentioned in the list of references.

Brno, 18 May 2012 Ivana Galetova

2
Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Helena Havlíčková, for her pati
guidance and valuable advice.
Abstract
The work is concerned with lesson planning for visually impaired students of English
as a foreign language. It offers basic information connected to teaching the visually
impaired, such as types of visual impairments, a list of learning tools and aids for the
visually impaired and some educational institutions for visually impaired in Brno. On
the background of a common lesson planning, there are suggestions how to approach
English lesson planning for the visually impaired. The aim of the practical part of the
work is to show differences between lesson planning for non-handicapped and for
visually handicapped students. The pronounced hypotheses will be proved or
disclaimed on grounds of information gained in a research among teachers.

Anotace
Práce se zabývá přípravou na hodinu zrakově postižených studentů angličtiny jako
cizího jazyka. Poskytuje základní informace spojené s výukou zrakově postižených,
jako je rozdělení zrakových vad, učební pomůcky pro zrakově postižené a některé
vzdělávací instituce pro zrakově postižené v Brně. Na základě běžné přípravy na
hodinu angličtiny jsou v práci navrženy přístupy k plánování hodin anglického
jazyka pro zrakově postižené. Praktická část je zaměřena na srovnání plánování
hodiny pro zrakově postižené a nepostižené studenty. Vyslovené hypotézy budou
potvrzeny nebo vyvráceny na základě výsledků výzkumného šetření mezi učiteli.

Key words
Lesson plan, lesson planning, visually impaired, visually handicapped, blind, English
language lesson, aids, tools

Klíčová slova
Příprava na hodinu, plánování hodin, zrakově postižený, zrakově handicapovaný,
nevidomý, hodina anglického jazyka, pomůcky

4
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Teaching English to visually impaired
2. Types of visual impairment
2.1 Division of visual impairments according to National Dissemination Center
for Children with Disabilities
3. Institutions for education of visually impaired in Brno
3. 1 Pre-school education
3. 2 Primary education
3. 3 Secondary education
3. 4 Tertiary education
4. Lesson Planning
4. 1 The need of a lesson plan
4. 2 What a lesson should plan include
4. 2. 1 Objectives
4. 2. 1. 1. Teaching the visually impaired - objectives
4. 2. 2 Procedure
4. 2. 2. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - procedure
4. 2. 3 Activities and approaches
4. 2. 3. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - approaches
4. 2. 4 Materials and equipment
4. 2. 4. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - materials and
equipment
4. 2. 4. 1.1 Braille
4. 2. 4. 1.2 Speech synthesizers
4. 2. 5 Anticipated problems
4. 2. 5. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - Anticipated problems
4. 2. 5. 1. 1 Pictures
4. 2. 5. 1. 2 Colours
4.2.5. 1. 3 Describe the...
4. 2. 5. 1.4 Graphs and shapes
4. 2. 5. 1 . 5 TPR (Total Physical Response)
4. 2. 5. 1.6 Listening

5
 4. 2. 5. 1. 7 C D - R O M
4.2.5. 1. 8 Testing
5. Research
5. 1 Hypotheses
5. 2 Questionnaire
5. 3 Results interpretation
6. Conclusion
Works cited
Appendices

6
Introduction

This work concentrates on lesson planning for visually impaired (VI) students of
English. Not only teachers are the ones who have to plan the lessons for the V I
students. Very often technicians, typographers, personal assistants or other people
have to be included in preparing a lesson. This work focuses mainly on the teachers'
lesson planning.
Although education of V I people with is becoming increasingly important, there is
not much theoretical background to support the teachers. Pupils and students with V I
are being integrated into common schools, visually impaired people study at
universities. However, the teachers who come into contact with these people often
have no or very little knowledge of how to deal with the completely new type of a
student. This is caused by the facts that methodical literature dealing with this issue
is scarce and methodology courses for language teachers included in tertiary
education curriculum are rather basic or too general to provide sufficient support.

One of the aims of this work is to help to those who teach or are going to teach
visually impaired students or who are interested in this issue. It should help them
realize how to approach lesson planning for the visually handicapped.

The work consists of two parts. The first part is theoretical and provides information
from opthalmopedia, typhlopedia, English language teaching methodology and other
related fields of study. The work includes ideas on how to approach lesson planning
for the visually impaired and how to prepare suitable teaching materials. Most of the
ideas are not new - they are well-known among teachers who teach visually impaired
people. Nevertheless, the work is supposed to provide guidance to the teachers who
are beginners in teaching the visually impaired and therefore offers a list of some
basic ideas, which may be useful.
The second part is empiric and presents research results of a questionnaire, which
was distributed among English language teachers to find out about their habits in
lesson planning. There is a comparison of visually impaired students teachers of
English as a second language and teachers of non-handicapped students of the same
subject.
The reasons for my topic choice are numerous. The main ones are that I myself deal
with a limited amount of materials for the teachers of the visually impaired and
therefore want to help the others, who face the same problem. I have been teaching
visually impaired people for more than six years and I find the job not only
challenging, but satisfying and rewarding, too.

8
1. Teaching English to visually impaired

No-one should be absent, let alone excluded, from wisdom and education and
training of the mind. Unless someone plans to do wrong to the individual in
particular and to the whole essence of humanity in general. The question is whether
the blind, the deaf and the retarded (who for their handicap are unable to learn like
the healthy) should receive education. M y answer is: A l l humans should be educated,
with the exception of non-humans. The more so as they need help for the nature
cannot help them for the handicap they have to bear.'
J. A. Komenský (Hluší, 2002, p.l)

Past are the times when handicapped people were concentrated into so called special
schools and educated separately from non-handicapped population. The tendency
nowadays is towards inclusive education, which is based on the belief that everyone
has the right to take part in education equally. It is an important concept because, in
its full interpretation, it represents a potentially profound shift away from policies
and practices based on selection according to perceptions about ability, which have
traditionally sanctioned the exclusion of many learners from mainstream education.'
(Armstrong, 2011, p. 7) Moreover, the right for education is stated in the Charter of
Fundamental Rights of the Czech Republic.
It is important to include people with special educational needs in the mainstream
education, but is it equally important to recognize these people as peers. Teachers
and classmates should accept the person the way he is and try to realise his potential,
personality and interests.
Armstrong says that schools have to transform their curricular material as well as the
social and pedagogical life. It is important to value all the students equally. They
shouldn't exclude anyone from any activity and have to try to remove barriers to
studying not only for the impaired student(s), but also for the rest of them. The
handicapped people shouldn't be seen as a difficulty, but rather as an inspiration.
Because inclusive education has been an idea of recent years, it is not practised
everywhere to the widest possible extent. It is a new concept of schooling, which the
educational systems should tolerate, but it is probably going to take a while before
the policies are fully implied everywhere.

9
Nowadays, all the visually impaired people are given the primary education
guaranteed by the law. Furthermore, they are supported in gaining education, which
would enable them to be included in our society. They commonly study vocational
high schools, choosing the field of study according to their handicap. In these days,
more and more people continue with their studies at universities. Hand in hand with
inclusive education comes the demand on teaching materials and equipment for
teaching the handicapped. In general, the need of a teaching aid corresponds to the
severity of the impairment. Each student has to be approached individually and the
means of communicating the teaching material to his needs has to be done in the best
possible way, which can hardly be standardised.
2. Types of visual impairment

The eye consists of three parts: receptor (external eye), the optic nerves and the
visual centre of the brain. Any of these three parts can be damaged and consequently
affect the vision. 'Vision is the sense by which objects in the external environment
are perceived by means of the light they give off or reflect.' Vision loss can be
1

partial or complete. 'Visually impaired people or people with a visual handicap are
people who suffer from various kinds and grades of lowered visual abilities. To be
more specific, the term applies to people whose everyday life activities are somehow
affected by the impairment and whose impairment cannot be corrected by common
optical aids.' 2

Those people are further divided into two groups: the weak-eyed and the blind.
Authority, such as the government, the ministry of health and different organisations
usually have their own terminology and division of visual impairments.

2.1 Division of visual impairments according to National Dissemination Center for

Children with Disabilities: 3

Partially sighted - the term refers to a person with some type of visual difficulty
which results in the need of special education.

Low vision - there is a severe visual impairment in a person. It does not necessarily
have to be a distance vision problem. The term applies to all individuals who are
unable to read a newspaper text common size at normal reading distance and this
disability cannot be corrected by glasses or lenses. These people usually use another
sense or possibly other senses to learn. Some of them may make use of additional
lighting and / or text size change.

Legally blind - a person has less than 20 / 200 sight in the better eye (the first
number indicates the length in meters needed by a visually impaired person to see an

1
<http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/vision> [23.2.2012]
2
<http://www.sons.cz/kdojezp.php> [23.2.2012]
<http://nichcy.org/disability/specific/visualimpairment> [23.2.2012]
object and the second number indicates the length in metres needed by a non-visually
impaired person to see the same object). This is often accompanied by a very limited
vision field.

Totally blind - those people have to learn with the help of Braille print and other
non-visual aids. Some of the people are able to recognise darkness and light, some of
them do not perceive the difference at all.
3. Institutions for education of visually impaired in Brno

Visually handicapped children can be educated either within the concept of inclusive
education in common schools or they can attend a specialised school. There are pros
and contras in both variants. Inclusive education helps the person not to feel different
in the society because of his handicap and he can greatly benefit from time spent
with non-handicapped people. However, because inclusive education is a new system
which emerged not many years ago, the teaching system and teachers are not fully
prepared for it and often do not have enough experience and education for teaching
visually impaired students in common classes. On the other hand, specialised schools
have excellent equipment and facilities to support those who cannot see well
followed by a well-educated teaching staff. Unfortunately, the chance to socialise
with peer healthy population is minimised.
I am going to list the institutions specialized in education of the V I people in Brno,
because firstly I am going to make the research in Brno and secondly I do not find it
crucial to make a complete list of all the institutions in the Czech republic as they can
be easily found on the Internet.
I decided to mention those institutions here to illustrate what kind of schooling and
approaches are employed in the whole education course of the visually impaired.

3. 1 Pre-school education
Kindergarten for Visually Impaired, Kamenomlynska 2, Brno
The kindergarten provides education to visually impaired and blind children and
children with visual handicap in combination with other impairments, e.g. mental
retardation, physical handicap or communication difficulties. The children have
chance to gain new experience through games with emphasis on spatial orientation,
sense perception and visual stimulation.

3. 2 Primary education
Primary school for Visually Impaired, Kamenomlynska 2, Brno
With the capacity of 175 pupils, the school provides the compulsory education to
children either visually impaired or blind children or children with visual handicap in
combination with other impairments. The facilities are optimised to fit the needs of
handicapped children and equipped with modern compensation aids. There is a
library offering a wide range of literature both in black print and Braille print.

3. 3 Secondary education
High school for Visually Impaired, Kamenomlýnská 2, Brno
The school specialises on visually impaired and blind students, but accepts students
with other handicaps as well. There is a wide range of study programs to choose
from, e.g. massaging, business, social studies, textile production etc. A n inseparable
part of the studies is a complex preparation for life of a visually impaired person, i.e.
Braille writing and reading, spatial orientation, using compensation aids etc.

3. 4 Tertiary education
Teiresiás - The Centre for Students with Special Educational Needs
Teiresiás was founded as a part of Masaryk University in Brno in 2000 to ensure that
courses accredited at the university are available for students who are visually
impaired, blind, hard of hearing, deaf, on a wheelchair or suffer from a different
handicap. The centre also provides lifelong education to visually impaired people,
who get a chance to gain education regardless of age and social status.
The centre runs courses parallel with courses at the faculties of the university,
courses additional to the courses at faculties and lifelong courses. It is a research as
well as counselling centre. As the only one in the Czech Republic it has a status of a
Braille print publishing, state academic library and interpretation and assistance
centre.
Teiresiás has become well-known among visually handicapped people and it is
widely known that they often decide to study at the Masaryk University because of
the great support they get there. Not every university can offer such a support,
although there are other centres too, e.g. Carolina at Charles University in Prague,
Centre for help to the handicapped at Palacký University in Olomouc and Tereza at
Czech Technical University in Prague.
4. Lesson Planning

In this chapter, I am going to briefly mention some reasons why there should be a
lesson plan, although the reasons are widely well known.
Furthermore I am going to elaborate on each recommended part of a lesson plan and
add some notes on what a teacher should bear in mind when planning lessons for the
visually impaired. This should be a good guide for those who are learning teaching
the handicapped.

4. 1 The need of a lesson plan

For truly professional teachers, lesson planning is not optional, it is essential
preparation for teaching.'(Davies, Pearse, 2008, p. 120) Teaching is an activity in
which the teacher has some objectives to meet and to do so successfully, he needs to
plan carefully. Lesson planning is crucial in teaching any subject, but it is even more
important in teaching English. That is because language is a complex system and one
must employ a certain number of skills at the same time to use it correctly, which is a
multitask skill not easy to acquire. Therefore teachers should think hard when
preparing for their lesson in order to help their students to reach their goals in the
most possible effective way. They should make clear what they expect their students
to know at the end of the lesson or the end of the year or the end of the course. The
next step would be to put stages of the lesson / course, i.e. the teaching / learning
process in logical order. Generally known stages of a language lesson are a warm-up,
a lead-in, the main activity, a follow-up and a wind-down.(Davies, Pearse, 2008, p.
122) Courses are usually based on a syllabus, which is prepared by the school or
education authority. It might be a content of a coursebook or a part of it, too. The
syllabus sets the objectives for a certain period of time, most commonly up to a year,
and tells the teachers what to teach and sometimes provides some methodological
recommendations.

Lesson plans are also useful to have as a reference, which might be needed during
the lesson. Teacher can keep already used lesson plans as a record of what he has
done with the students. A situation may arise when the teacher is asked to provide
some evidence of his teaching activities for his supervisor or his students' parents.
4. 2 What a lesson should plan include
Division of a lesson plan parts was partly taken from Teaching Practice Handbook
(Gower, Phillips, Walters, 1995, p. 176-177).

4. 2. 1 Objectives
It should be clearly stated in a lesson plan what the teacher intends to teach and what
the expected outcome is, i.e. what language and / or skill(s) will the students know
and be able to use at the end of the lesson, or at the end of the course in case of
planning the whole course. Gower, Phillips and Walters point out that there are often
more aims in a single lesson - the main aim and one or more subsidiary aims. The
aims should be clear to both the teacher and the students.

4. 2. 1. 1. Teaching the visually impaired - objectives

When teaching handicapped students, the importance of objectives remains the same
as with non-handicapped students. However, it would be advisable to be more
careful and make sure the students understand the objectives. The blind have a
tendency to verbalism, which is abundant use of words carrying no meaning and can
be often seen in the blind. They seemingly understand what the teacher is saying, but
in fact it may be an act of verbalism and if the teachers do not cross check the
understanding, the point may be missed by the student.

4. 2. 2 Procedure
The teacher has to plan the stages to make sure that the objectives will be met. He
should plan what will be done at each stage and know the reason for it. Linking
between the stages is important too. He should think of the materials that he intends
to use and consider the most appropriate approach and activities to be employed in
the lesson. He needs to take the amount of time into account as well.

4. 2. 2. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - procedure

In teaching the visually impaired, the teacher has to remember that the students are
always slower that the non-handicapped ones. The pace is influenced by many
factors, such as the type and etiology of the impairment, age, the level of command
in the language and motivation to name but a few.
The teaching materials may be a problem. Depending on the handicap, Braille print
or electronic version may be demanded by the student. However, according to the
Copyright Act No. 121/2000 and amendments to the act, it is illegal to reproduce a
work in any way. Nevertheless, educational institutions such as primary and high
schools and universities that educate visually impaired students are commonly
holders of licences enabling them to reproduce teaching materials so that they can be
digitalized or printed out in Braille. I suggest asking the institution the teacher works
for about how extended their rights are in this particular area.

4. 2. 3 Activities and approaches

Activities should be various and have to be chosen with the students in mind. It is
advisable to remember students' interests, age and level. The teacher has to know
which skills he is going to develop, whether productive ones (speaking and writing)
or receptive ones (reading and listening) and choose the activities according to that.
Another important thing to consider is the way in which to check the students'
understanding. It would be unwise not to check either during the lesson or at the end
of it whether everyone is following. At the same time it might be useful for the
teacher to get some feedback on the lesson and he should decide in advance what
kind of feedback would be best.

4. 2. 3. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - approaches

The choice of activities which can be employed in lesson with visually impaired are
limited, but teachers should not be discouraged by this fact. On the contrary, it gives
them the opportunity to be creative.
There are some activities which cannot be used under any circumstances. They are
mostly those which are somehow connected to vision, although some activities, such
as using a video, can be used, but must be modified. The rule that the teacher has to
approach the students individually and abide by the needs of the student and his
handicap strictly applies here.
Activities which are impossible to be used are e.g. describing pictures, describing the
surroundings or the classmates, spot the difference (based on pictures), retelling a
story based on pictures, any activity connected based on drawing, watching a video
without the sound etc.
As mentioned above, some activities can be modified for the use in a lesson with
visually impaired students. For example, it is possible to watch a video, but because
the student is not able to watch it and can only listen to the sounds, the teacher has to
modify the task if it is based on visual perception and so that the video remains a
video, he has to describe the scene to the student while watching it. Moreover, the
teacher has to decide at this point whether the description is going to be in the
student's mother tongue or in English. Another example of modification is an
activity based on pictures. The pictures may be described in writing, again either in
Czech or English. Although the activity will become more a reading activity, it is
still a nice variation as these activities for the visually impaired are rare to find.

4. 2. 4 Materials and equipment

Materials and aids planned to be used in a lesson should be noted in the lesson plans
too. According to Davies, they should be appropriate for both the aim of the lesson
and the specific group of students. Age and interests of the students must be kept in
mind as well. Size of the group and its composition play their role too. It is a plus to
know the individual students' profiles.

Common teaching aids: black / white / interactive board, flashcards, word cards,
pictures, cassettes, CDs, DVDs, tape recorder, C D player, computer programs, real
objects, authentic objects, wall charts, worksheets, overhead projector, puzzles, T V ,
the Internet, ...

4. 2. 4. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - materials and equipment

The main difference between planning a lesson for students without handicaps and
the handicapped ones is in finding the right materials to be employed in the lesson.
Obviously, a visually impaired person very often cannot be able to use identical
materials as his non-handicapped peers.
Most visually handicapped people use various compensational aids in order to be
able to gain information which other people can perceive visually, in other words
which they can see. The choice of an aid or aids depends on the type of impairment
and the preferences of the users if there are more options. Partially sighted people,
people with low vision and legally blind ones have a wider variety of aids to choose
from than totally blind people have. There are non-optical aids (enlarged text either
printed out or displayed on a computer screen in various colour combinations of the
text and the background, illumination, pens and markers with thick marks), optical
aids (non-illuminated or illuminated pocket magnifying glass,), electronic aids
(digital magnifiers for visually impaired, eg. Optron, Prisma, Andromeda) and aids
for communication and information technology (PC and specialized software, the
Braille line, Picht typewriter etc.).
I am going to look closely at the Braille system and voice synthesisers, because they
are hard to imagine for people who have never seen them and at the same time they
are the main ways for the blind of how to get textual information.

4. 2. 4. 1.1 Braille
The Braille system of writing was invented by a blind Frenchman Louis Braille in
1825. The system consists of 2 , which is 46 characters. Each character, called a cell,
6

is made up of six dot positions - two columns of three dots. The dots are numbered
1-6. Some of the dots are raised, for letter or number 1 the dot number 1 is raised
(left column the top dot). There are characters for punctuation and other symbols,
too. A text can be printed out in Braille on a special printer. It can be typed on a
Braille writer, which is similar to a typewriter. Also, there is an electronic aid that is
called the Braille line. It can be connected to a computer. Its system is similar to the
speech synthesizer one, because the cursor is followed, but the text in Braille is
displayed in a line on the gadget. This way of text mediation might be more desirable
in terms of reading than speech synthesisers, however, not every blind student own a
Braille line since it is financially demanding to purchase one. Common cost of a
Braille line starts at C Z K 100 000.
Braille print

Braille line

4. 2. 4. 1.2 Speech synthesizers

There is screenreader software such as JAWS, WindowEyes, WinMonitor etc.,
which can mediate the text to the reader through audio outcome. The position of the
cursor is read out loud and the user can read either letter by letter, whole words or
whole lines. The speech speed can be adjusted and there is usually a choice between

4
<http://www.conseilcoopipe.org/tips-selecting-braille-translation-services/> [15.5.2012]
5
<http://sales.seeitourway.org/index.php?main_page=index&cPath= 12_22> [ 15.5.2012]
a male or a female voice. A state-of-the-art speech synthesizer Eliska provides a very
natural sound and a part of the program is an English voice Heather.
The opinions of teachers on speech synthesizers differ from teacher to teacher. Some
teachers do not mind their students using them in studying a language, the others are
strictly against. A lot of students prefer using Czech synthesizers, which do not
sound as English at all, because they can hear the spelling. Some teachers say it has a
bad impact on their learning. On the other hand, my experience is that even when the
students do not use an English synthesizer, their pronunciation is not affected at all.
It is an interesting phenomenon and would be worth a research.
Samples of speech synthesis can be found on the audio C D enclosed to this work.

The teacher has to know about the students' preferences for the aids and has to take
the fact into account when planning the lesson. He has to prepare the teaching and
studying materials in such a way that the student is able to use them. It means either
converting the materials from printed version into an electronic one, often adjusting
the content slightly - it is often very hard if not impossible for visually handicapped
people to recognize what is in pictures, which are nowadays widely used in
textbooks. It is up to the teacher to decide what to do - whether to skip a picture-
based exercise completely or adapt it for the use with his student. There is always the
possibility to describe what is in the pictures, whether in writing or orally in the
lesson. However, not every exercise is suitable for adjusting. I am going to mention
this problem in the following section.

The teacher also should make the classroom as comfortable for the student as
possible. There has to be individual approach in the foreground more than anywhere
else in teaching students with visual handicaps, because severity and combinations of
them are numerous.
Totally blind people have a choice of olfactory, haptic or audio form of information
input. Optimally all the senses should be employed to supply for the visual
incompetence, however, it is often very difficult to put it into practice.
4. 2. 5 Anticipated problems
Well as the lesson may be planned, one can never be sure that everything will go as
planned. Problems may arise any time and thinking of strategies of how to manage
them in advance would be advisable. There are usually various things that may go
wrong, whether they are connected to the language or classroom management. To
name but a few of them: some students finish earlier that others, students find the
issue more / less difficult that the teacher anticipated, an activity takes longer or
shorter time than the teacher expected. Well-planned strategies help not only not to
disrupt the lesson, but also to achieve what the teacher wants to achieve anyway.

4. 2. 5. 1 Teaching the visually impaired - Anticipated problems

The teacher has to strictly distinguish between teaching a visually impaired student
in a one-to-one lesson, teaching a homogenous group of visually impaired students
and teaching a visually handicapped student integrated in a group of non-
handicapped students.
In one-to-one lesson, the teacher adapts the pace of the lesson to the students needs.
It is impossible to generalize here about the time planning, because - as mentioned
above - every visually blind student has his own pace of work. It is a thing that the
teacher has to find out himself or from his colleagues' or the student's parent's
references.
Teaching a group of visually impaired students is unarguably more demanding than a
one-to-one lesson. However, still the group is homogenous and more or less the same
general rules as in teaching the non-handicapped apply.
The most demanding in term of lesson planning is the situation when a visually
impaired student is integrated in a common classroom. There are a number of things
that the teacher should bear in mind not only when planning the lesson, but also
when teaching it.
First of all, he has to know what kind of difficulty is the student suffering from and
what is his way of working like. Moreover, it is necessary to know what aids the
student uses, so that materials in appropriate form can be prepared.
The classroom setting is important too. Some students prefer well-illuminated
working space, therefore it would be advisable to seat those students by a window,
switch the light on or even provide the student with a table lamp. Other students, on
the contrary, are lucifugous and seek for darker, dimly lit places. If the student uses a
digital reading magnifier, he will need a desk for himself and enough space around.
If he works with a computer, he will need a power point close to his desk. Also, an
obstacle-free space should be provided in the classroom.
It is often very difficult, if not impossible, to mediate all the information that the non-
handicapped students get to a V I student. I am going to mention some points at
which a teacher may get stuck.

4. 2. 5. 1. 1 Pictures
As mentioned above, V I students are sometimes not able to discern pictures.
However, most English language textbooks are based on pictures, especially those
for young learners and teenagers. Moreover, many teachers use pictures in additional
and complementary activities, which they prepare themselves. But how to use
pictures with a V I student? He does not have to necessarily sit aside and wait until
the activity is over. The pictures can be described verbally or in writing. It is up to
the teacher to decide whether he wants to use the mother tongue or English, is (in?)
some exercises, however, mother tongue is a better option, because description in
English would tell the student the answers, e.g. in exercises on present simple and
continuous tenses (see example 1). The teacher can prepare a list with descriptions of
the pictures or prepare cards with the descriptions. It is important though that the
sequence is not changed in comparison with the original sequence or the sequence
presented to the other students, otherwise the V I student is highly probably going to
get lost.
Example 1: Look at the picture and fill in the gaps with verbs in brackets in present
simple or present continuous.
6
—> obr. a): na židli sedí dívka oblečená v
zeleném tričku a modrých kalhotách. Píše na
klávesnici počítače.
The girl (sit) and
(type). She
(wear) a green T-shirt.
Another option of mediating pictures is usage of realia, i.e. real objects. For example,
when there are pictures of things in a schoolbag in the textbook (a ruler, a rubber, a

6
<http://mercigd.wordpress.com/2010/04/10/present-continuous-theory/> [30.4.2012]
sharpener, a pen etc.), the V I student can get a real ruler, rubber, sharpener and pen
to work with. It is desirable to employ more senses; therefore haptics is a good
option. Alternatively, aromas can be captured in jars, also on a piece of cotton in jars
to present spices, food or other things, e.g. bark, hay, moss etc.

Plastic animals made from various types of material

4. 2. 5. 1. 2 Colours

People are often afraid to mention colours in presence of a blind person. They think
that it is rude to mention something the person cannot see or imagine. Nevertheless,
the V I people have those words in the mother tongue and there is no reason not to
have them in a foreign language. Moreover, they know that grass is green and the sky
is blue, so there it would not be right to leave this part of a language out.

4. 2. 5. 1. 3 Describe the...
Description of various things and situations is often included in exercises to
encourage students' productive skills. Some types of these exercises are not very
suitable for the VI impaired students. E . g. Look around and describe your classroom
/ look out of the window and describe, what you can see are examples of unsuitable
exercise for the visually impaired. However, those exercises can be often modified
easily. V I students are eager to know the details about their surroundings. They can

7
<http://www.hrackymisa.ez/hrackymisa-cz/eshop/l0-1 -Hracky-pro-nevidome> [ 15.5.2012]
get a description in their mother tongue and be asked to produce the English version.
Alternatively, they can be given a chance to touch the things if they can be touched.
For example, if the task is to describe a classmate, they can touch him, if they both
agree, and the V I student can provide a description such as he is taller than me, he
has got short hair, he is wearing glasses etc. Moreover, such an activity would
surely enhance the relationships within the class.

4. 2. 5. 1.4 Graphs and shapes

Even though it needs a certain amount of creativity, it is only seemingly difficult to
mediate graphs or shapes. We can cut shapes out of cardboard and use them just like
that, or add description on the back (e.g. in Braille), or glue them on a sheet of paper,
the possibilities are many. A timeline, which is often used in teaching tenses, can be
created with a string glued on a sheet of paper. It is possible to use other materials,
such as leather, sand paper, wood or wool too. Creating such aids is time consuming,
but rewarding.

Braille map

4. 2. 5. 1 . 5 TPR (Total Physical Response)

TPR is a very good activity to use with V I students, because it helps them learn and
remember as well as it helps the non-handicapped students. The problem is that they
cannot copy the teacher and the others if they are not able to see them. If the student
does not mind, the teacher or a classmate can instruct him by touching, moving or

<http://careers.guardian.co.uk/blind-graduates-employment> [ 15.5.2012]
pushing parts of his body, at least for the first time. E. g. touch your nose with your
right hand, the instructor waits to see if the student understands and if not, he takes
his right hand gently and puts it on his nose.

4. 2. 5. 1.6 Listening
Listening exercises may often cause problems in terms of keeping up with the
classmates. The V I students are usually slower in reading and the orientation in a text
is more or less difficult. Depending on the type of visual impairment and the style of
student's work, the listening exercises should be adapted.
A video can be used as listening material as well. The teacher has to remember that
he must describe the scene to the student, which may be done in mother tongue or in
English with advanced students. Although it seems to be contra productive to use
video, when instead of watching and listening there has to be someone talking
simultaneously with the actors to describe the scene, it is a valuable activity which is
time demanding, but an excellent source of language in endless number of situations
and the main point is that it is another activity, which makes the lessons more
enjoyable and attractive for the students. Describing the scene is not easy - one has
to judge well which information can be omitted and which has to be included. Also,
to learn to talk and not destroy the impression from the movie is difficult, too. I
recommend rehearsing the commenting beforehand, optimally with eyes closed and
another person describing (and swapping the roles after), so that the teacher can
imagine the situation.

4. 2. 5. 1. 7 C D - R O M
Modern English language textbooks are often supplemented with a C D - R O M , which
some teachers like to use in the class. Unfortunately, those CR-ROMs are usually not
user friendly for V I students as they are not compatible with speech synthesisers. If a
teacher wants to use a C D - R O M in his lessons, he should think about a way how to
provide these materials for his V I student. He can print them out in Braille or rewrite
them into a word processor. Again, it depends on the type of impairment. He has to
be careful with the copyright though.
4. 2. 5. 1. 8 Testing
V I students can be tested in the same way as non-handicapped students. However,
they will probably need more time to complete written tests. It is advisable to explain
to the rest of the class why the student is given more time. The other students are
usually understanding and even helpful, if possible.

If the teacher does not know how to adapt materials for a V I student, there is nothing
easier than asking the student. Unfortunately, the student may not know himself. He
might be able to describe only his style of work and the properties of his aids, but the
main burden is on the teacher - he has to find out how to do it. M y advice is: be
creative.
5. Research

In the research, my intention was to compare the English lesson planning for V I
students of English as a second language and English lesson planning for non-
handicapped students of English as a second language. I wanted to find out which
lesson planning is more demanding for the teacher in means of time, re-usability,
creativity and material availability.
I decided to carry out a quantitative research, although a qualitative one might have
been more suitable, because the number of respondents was going to be small. The
reason is that there are not many teachers of V I students, because V I students are a
minority. However, a qualitative research would be too time-demanding and would
require a longer time span.
I constructed a questionnaire, which was distributed among my colleague teachers in
Teiresias - The Centre for Students with Special Educational Needs, because I have
been teaching there for more than five years. The rest of the questionnaires were
distributed among my friends - teachers. The questionnaire was distributed via
emails, because it is nowadays a common means of communication and it is quicker
and more flexible than the distribution of a printed version. What is more, one of my
colleagues in Teiresias is visually handicapped herself and she could use voice
synthesiser to read the questionnaire rather than a print-out in Braille and therefore
she did not have to rewrite it back for me to be able to read the answers.

5. 1 Hypotheses

Based on the goals mentioned above, I pronounced the following hypotheses:

The basic hypothesis

H: Lesson planning for visually impaired students of English as a foreign language is

more demanding in terms of time and material than lesson planning for non-
handicapped students of English as a foreign language.
Hypotheses about lesson planning for handicapped and non-handicapped students:
—> H I : Teachers of visually impaired students spend more time on lesson planning
than teachers of non-handicapped students.
—> H2: Teachers of visually impaired students use the same lesson plan fewer times
than teachers of non-handicapped students.
—> H3: Teachers of visually impaired students have to modify or handcraft more
materials than non-handicapped students.
—> H4: There are fewer suitable teaching materials available for the visually impaired
than for the non-handicapped.

5. 2 Questionnaire
The questionnaire consists of 4 parts and 20 questions. Most of the questions are
closed, some of them are open. After the introduction and instructions for filling in
the questionnaire there is Part 1, which is introductory. It consists of six questions
and its goal is to gather statistical data such as sex of the respondent, number of
students is his groups or type of students they teach / taught (visually impaired / non-
handicapped). I intentionally did not ask about the school they teach at, whether a
primary, secondary or tertiary school, because the research sample is too little that
this piece of information is not crucial for me.
Part 2, which follows, concentrates on lesson plans and consists of four questions.
Part 3 is the shortest one and is aimed at creating teaching materials. The last part,
Part 4, consists of seven questions and concentrates on the availability of teaching
materials and frequency of use of certain materials in teaching.

5. 3 Results
I distributed eighteen questionnaires. Thirteen questionnaires came back, which
makes up 72%. Although 75% or more is generally supposed to be the minimum
needed for a valid research, I decided to lower the requirements.

Questions no. 1 and 2

Twelve respondents were female and one was male. The span of teaching English
practice length was rather wide, from 3 months to 20 years, see graph 1. The number
of students in groups was variable, from one-to-one size of groups to more than
fifteen students in a group. Teachers of V I students teach groups of one student only.
See graph 2.

Teaching practice lenght

Graph 1

• Group A

• Group B

Group C
Group C
Group B
Group A
students 5-10
students 10-15
students more
students
than 15
students

Graph 2 - Number of students in groups

Question no. 4
At this stage, I divided the respondents and their questionnaires into 3 groups: Group
A - teachers who teach only visually non-handicapped students, Group B - teachers
who teach only visually handicapped students and Group C - teachers who teach
both groups.

Questions no. 5 and 6

Out of seven teachers who teach visually non-handicapped students (Group A ) , no
one has ever taught a V I student. Therefore the following question, question number
6 was not relevant to them.
Teachers of V I students (Group B) have taught non-handicapped students before and
one of them (= 50%) considers the lesson planning for V I students equally
demanding and one (= 50%) more demanding than lesson planning for non-
handicapped students. Two (= 50%) out of the four teachers who teach both groups
(Group C) consider lesson planning for V I students equally demanding and two (=
50%) more demanding than lesson planning for non-handicapped students.

Question no. 7
In Group A , six teachers (86%) make a written lesson plan, one does not. In Group
B, all the teachers make a written lesson plan. In Group C, three teachers (75%)
make a written lesson plans, one does not.
Those who make written lesson plans were asked to estimate the time needed for
making one lesson plan. See graph 3.

1 • Group A

• Group B

0 / Group C Group C
' Group B
Group A
mins more
mins mins no
mins
than 60
written
mins
lesson
plans

Graph 3 - Lesson planning length

Questions no. 9 and 10
Six teachers from Group A who make written lesson plan also keep them. Five of
them reuse them once up to three times, one teacher keeps the lesson plans for
reference and disposes them of at the end of the course.
In Group B, one teacher keeps the lesson plans and reuses them usually twice. One
teacher disposes them of, because he/she never has a chance to use them again.
In Group C, those who make written lesson plans keep them. One teacher keeps them
for following years and reuses them with slight modifications. One teacher says that
his lesson planning consist mostly of creating materials for his/her students, but says
that although he/she keeps her lesson plans, there is 99% probability he/she will
never use them again.

Question no. 11
In Group A , five teachers (71%) modify materials for their lessons, most of them
using all the equipment mentioned (paper, glue, scissors, a printer, a copy machine, a
computer). They mention modifying them according to level of English of their
students, according to suitability of exercises, making handouts. Two teachers do not
alter their materials.
In Group B, all teachers (100%) modify their materials, all mentioning enlarging text
on copy machines.
In Group C, all the teachers (100%) modify materials. One teacher compiles
materials from various textbooks. One teacher needs to modify materials for the V I
students, therefore mostly uses copy machine, scanner and printer. He/she removes
pictures and modifies fonts to the need of the students.

Questions no. 12 and 13

Five teachers (71%) in Group A say they handcraft materials for their lessons. The
reasons are that some materials are not available, to make something new, to make
the lesson more enjoyable and attractive, to show the students a complete template
(not specified of what).
In Group B, all teachers (100%) handcraft materials, mentioning reasons such as to
illustrate what cannot be illustrated in pictures, to make lessons more entertaining
and to bring different types of activities to relax the students.
One teacher (25%) in Group C handcrafts materials and he/she says it is to meet the
students' needs.

Question no. 14
A l l the teachers (100%) in Group A are quite satisfied with the amount of materials
available in libraries, shops, etc. for their teaching. They do not miss anything.
In Group B, one teacher is quite satisfied and one is dissatisfied with the amount of
materials available. One teacher misses materials on methodology for special
education and materials and textbooks for the blind or visually handicapped.
In Group C, two teachers are happy and two are quite happy with the amount of
materials available. One teacher mentioned that she has faces certain difficulties
when using available materials with V I students, because she is visually impaired
herself and finds it difficult to adapt materials for her students. See graph 4.

Graph 4 - Satisfaction with amount of materials

• Group A

• Group B

• Group C

Happy Quite satisfied Dissatisfied

Question no. 15
Four teachers (57%) in Group A have never had a problem to teach a certain topic
because of the materials, i.e. they have never had a problem to find suitable material.
Three teachers say they have had such difficulties.

33
A l l teachers (100%) in Group B have faced a difficulty to teach a certain topic
because of unsuitable materials.
None of the teachers in Group C have had difficulties to teach a certain topic because
of unsuitable materials.

Question no. 16
Two teachers (29%) say that their students have a good choice of study materials.
Four teachers (57%) say the students do not have a good choice of study materials
and one teacher did not answer this question.
A l l teachers (100%) in Group B think that their students do not have a good choice
of study materials.
In Group C, two teachers (50%) think that their students have a good choice of study
materials, one thinks they do not have a good choice and one teacher says that his/her
sighted students do have a good choice and his/her V I students do not have a good
choice of materials.

Question no. 17
The frequency of using certain types of teaching materials is pictured in the
following graphs.
The respondents were asked to number 0-4 (0 - never used, 1 - most frequents, 4 -
least frequent) visual materials, listening materials, reading materials and real objects
according to the frequency of use in their lessons. Some respondents used one mark
twice; therefore I decided to give points for their marks as follow: 0 = 0 points, 1=4
points, 2 = 3 points, 3 = 2 points, 4 = 1 point, 0 = 0 points.
Graph 5 shows the complete amount of points per groups, graph 6 shows the amount
of points per person in the group, therefore the tendency to use certain materials can
be better seen in this graph.
Graph6-Pointsper person
Question no. 18
Two teachers (29%) in Group A use other materials in teaching two, one mentioning
puppets and one listing games and materials for discussion.
Teachers in Group B do not use any other types of teaching materials.
One teacher (25%) in Group C uses other materials, specifically video.

Question no. 19
A l l teachers (100%) in Group A use C D - R O M in their lessons.
One teacher in Group B uses C D - R O M , one does not giving a reason that C D - R O M
is useless with V I students.
In Group C, two teachers (50%) use C D - R O M , two do not and give following
reasons: they are usually not compatible with screen readers, they are intended for
self-study and are waste of time.

Question no. 20
Interactive board is used by three teachers (43%) in Group A , three teachers would
use it if it was available in their school and one teacher says they do not need it.
Teachers in Group B do not use an interactive board, but would use it if it was
available in their school.
In Group C, none of the teacher uses an interactive board and three of them do not
know whether they would like to use it, because they do not have any experience
with it. One teacher refuses to use it regularly, as he/she sees it as a business tool.

5. 3 Interpretation of results
In the research, the hypothesis that teachers of visually impaired students spend more
time on lesson planning than teachers of non-handicapped students (HI) was not
confirmed. Although two respondents spend more than 60 minutes making an
average lesson plan, there was one teacher of V I students who needs only 15 minutes
to make it and one teacher of non-handicapped students who needs more than 60
minutes to make a lesson plan. It is highly probable that the time spent on lesson
planning is individual and corresponds not only to one's teaching practice length, but
also to one's personality and skills. One respondent, whose teaching practice is 3
months, needs more that 60 minutes. Another respondent whose teaching practice is
four years needs more than 60 minutes too. However, another respondent whose
teaching practice is two years claims to spend 15-30 minutes on an average lesson
plan.
The hypothesis, that teachers of visually impaired students use the same lesson plan
fewer times than teachers of non-handicapped students (H2) was confirmed. Most
teachers of non-handicapped students reuse their lesson plans, however, most
teachers of non-handicapped students usually do not have any opportunity to use
their lesson plans repeatedly. This is probably caused by the fact that every V I
student has slightly different needs and to find two students at the same level of
English, with the same visual impairment and the same educational needs, moreover
studying in the same school is almost impossible.
The hypothesis that teachers of visually impaired students have to modify or
handcraft more materials than non-handicapped students (H3) was not confirmed in
the research. Most of the teachers teaching all kinds of students modify materials in
some way. However, the teachers of V I students mention different kind of
modifications, such as enlarging texts, excluding pictures etc., which are kind of
modification that have to be done with V I students. On the other hand, teachers of
non-handicapped students use modification simply to design a new material, which
would suit their needs better. In other words, these modifications are done mostly for
practical and aesthetic reasons. Therefore, I would say that the hypothesis was
confirmed in a way, but to claim this result a better constructed research would be
needed.
The hypothesis that there are fewer suitable teaching materials available for the
visually impaired than for the non-handicapped (H4) was not confirmed. Although it
is a fact that there is a limited number of materials for V I students, the part of the
questionnaire which was supposed to prove that was not designed well, as it turned
out during the evaluation (see the comment on question number 16 above).

The overall results of the research were rather contradictory to my expectations. I

have to point out a few important aspects that I suppose strongly affected the results.
Firstly, the most serious problem was that I chose to carry out a quantitative research.
With hindsight, I must admit that a qualitative research would have been more
suitable. Some questions were misunderstood, for example question number 1 6 - 1
meant to ask whether there is a good choice of materials the students could use if
they wanted, but the respondents understood I was asking whether the students really
use them. If the research was qualitative and I made an interview, I could have
explained the questions better.
Secondly, the research sample was not big enough to show the differences. A more
complex research would be needed to show the differences between lesson planning
for V I students and non-handicapped students. Unfortunately, teachers of English to
blind students are not many, which is a condition that cannot be changed.
Thirdly, there is also a possibility that the respondents were not motivated enough to
fill in the questionnaires properly and with care for details or to fill it in at all. It
would be advisable to meet the respondents in person and talk to them about the
issue prior to filling in the questionnaires or alternatively to accompany the
questionnaire with an introductory motivating letter.
Future research should be more specific and concentrate individually on the specifics
of lesson planning for the visually handicapped students of English as a second
language and on materials available for teaching English to the visually handicapped.
6. Conclusion

Being a teacher of visually handicapped students has shown me new dimensions of

teaching. It has brought me into a completely different world where a teacher must
become the teacher. The teacher, who possesses all the virtues a teacher is supposed
to possess: vigilance, patience, professionalism, trustworthiness, sensitiveness,
fairness and many others. I have learned to do my best and be innovative with
visually handicapped people who look up to me and expect me to teach them, to help
them to communicate with the world. The beginning was not easy and that is the
reason why I wanted to help my colleagues - teachers - and to show them that
teaching visually impaired people is a big challenge, but a worthwhile challenge at
the same time.
I provided some basic useful information about the education of visually
handicapped people. Those interested in teaching the visually handicapped may find
it useful. When compiling the theoretical part of this work, I faced the problem of
insufficient amount of methodical literature dealing with teaching the visually
impaired. I hope that this work will supply this insufficiency at least a little.
In the practical part, I carried out a research, which was meant to show that it is more
difficult to prepare a lesson for a visually impaired student. However, most of my
hypotheses were not proved correct. Nevertheless, I believe this fact is the result of
imperfect research tool used and that I at least offered an idea of what can be
researched in more depth in the future.
Appendices
Appendix A - the questionnaire
Appendix B - an audio CD, speech synthesisers demo
 Appendix A - the questionnaire

Dear colleagues,
M y name is Ivana Galetova. I am a teacher of English and am currently making a
research in lesson planning. I am particularly interested in lesson planning for the
visually impaired, which I am going to compare with lesson planning for non-
handicapped students. By filling in this questionnaire you will help me to define the
specifics of lesson planning for the visually handicapped.
Filling in the questionnaire should not take longer than 10-15 minutes.
Thank you for your help.

Filling in the questionnaire

when choosing an option, you should preferably underline it
when writing (longer) answers, continue after the questions

Part 1

1. Male or female:

2. How long have you been teaching English?

3. How many students on average are in the groups where you teach English?
a) 1 student
b) 2 students
c) 3 - 5 students
d) 5 - 1 0 students
e) 1 0 - 1 5 students
f) more than 15 students

4. Choose the correct option for you: / teach

a) only visually non-handicapped students - if your answer is Y E S , go to question 5a
b) only visually handicapped students - if your answer is Y E S , go to question 5b
c) both groups - if your answer is yes, go to question 6

5a. Have you ever taught visually handicapped students? If your answer is NO, go to
question 7
 5b. Have you ever taught non-handicapped students? If your answer is N O , go to
question 7

6. Compare your lesson planning for visually handicapped and non-handicapped

students and choose the best option:
a) Lesson planning for visually handicapped students is more demanding than lesson
planning for non-handicapped students.
b) Lesson planning for visually handicapped students is less demanding than lesson
planning for non-handicapped students.
c) Lesson planning for visually handicapped students is equally demanding as lesson
planning for non-handicapped students.

Part 2
7. Do you make written lesson plans?
a) Y E S
b) N O —> go to question 11

8. How much time do you spend on an average lesson plan?

a) Less than 15 minutes
b) 1 5 - 3 0 minutes
c) 30 - 45 minutes
d) 45 - 60 minutes
e) More than 60 minutes

9. Do you
a) keep your lesson plans —> go to question 10a
b) dispose of them —> go to question 10b

10a. Do you have a chance to use the same lesson plans again? If yes, how many
times / how often?
10b. Why?

Part 3

11. Do you have to alter or modify any materials for you lessons beforehand?
a) Y E S —> If yes, what kind of material and what do you have to do with it?
 —> What do you need and use for the alterations? (eg. paper, glue, scissors, a printer,
a copy machine, a computer etc.)
b) N O

12. Do you handcraft any materials for you lessons?

a) Y E S
b) N O —> go to question 14

13. Why do you handcraft materials for your lessons?

Part 4
14. Choose the option you most agree with:
a) I am happy with the amount of materials (in shops, libraries...) available for my
teaching.
b) I am quite satisfied with the amount of materials (in shops, libraries...) available
for my teaching.
c) I am dissatisfied with the amount of materials (in shops, libraries...) available for
my teaching.
—> if you miss anything, what is it?

15. Have you ever had a problem to teach a certain topic because there was not any
suitable teaching material anywhere (you did not have any, there was none in your
school, none in the shops)?
a) YES
b) NO

16. In your opinion, do your students have a good choice of study materials they are
able to use, e.g. more than 5 sources concerning one topic?
a) YES
b) NO

17. Number 1 to 4 the following types of materials according to the frequency you
use them in your teaching. If you do not use any of them at all, number it 0 and use
numbers 1 - 3 for the rest (or 1 - 2 etc.). Number 1= the most frequently, number
4=least frequently:
 Visual materials (pictures, graphs, sketches etc.)
Listening material (CDs - dialogues, song etc.)
Reading materials (texts in textbooks, fiction, newspapers, magazines etc.)
Real objects (everyday objects, food, toys etc.)

18. Do you use any other type of teaching materials?

a) Y E S -> what is it?
b) NO

19. Do you ever use C D - R O M to teach English in your lessons?

a) Y E S
b) N O —> give reason please

20. Do you ever use an interactive board to teach English in your lessons?
a) YES
b) N O —> give reason please. (If the reason is that there is not one in your school,
would you use it if there was? a) Y E S , b) NO)

If you have any comments, you are welcome to write them here.

Thank you very much for your co-operation. It is highly appreciated.

Works cited
A R M S T R O N G , Felicity. Inclusive Education. School cultures, teaching and
learning. In Teaching and learning in diverse and inclusive classrooms. Oxon:
Routledge, 2011. 176 p. ISBN 978-0-415-56463-2.

D A VIES, Paul, PEARSE, Eric. Success in English Teaching. Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2008. 221 p. ISBN 978-0-19-442171-3.

GOWER, Roger, PHILLIPS, Diane, W A L T E R S , Steve. Teaching Practice

Handbook. Great Britain: Heinemann Publishers, 1995. ISBN 0-435-24059-5.

HLUSI, Eli ška. Chapters from History of Museum of the Blind in the Czech
Republic. Brno: Technické múzeum v Brne, 2002. 46 p. ISBN 80-86413-07-1.