Teaching English to a blind student

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

A Taiwanese friend of mine has recently told me that her sisiter, who is blind, would like to take up private English lessons, and asked me if I would be interested in the job.

This seems a bit daunting to me, since I generally work with written material when I tutor privately (don’t we all!).

What would the challenges be? I mean, we sure aint gonna be working off the book. I’m thinking loads of conversation, reading (me, followed by Q&A), listening to conversational CDs, ‘watching’ movies and discussing after…

What are your suggestions and have you ever been in this situation? She has a beginner to upper-beginner English level, since she studied it at high school (was still sighted then)

Cheers
DM

2

I have never been in this situation but it seems it should just be a matter of focusing on listening. Personally, I would have her tape the sessions so she could review them and that should help her retain more.
Best of luck to both of you.

3

That would actually be a cool job.

4

I taught a blind student and it was very rewarding. They problem was finding a good source of braille materials. Her school would always get her textbooks to her very late.

5

I agree with Vannyel. You should focus on teaching listening. Your students skills in this area may need a bit of work. After you finish up with that you can start teaching talking.