Teaching Vocabulary to Visually Impaired EFL Learners: A Small-Scale Study

Abstract

This qualitative study aims at providing an in-depth account of teaching vocabulary to young English as a foreign language (EFL) learners with visual impairments. In the present study, we investigate how foreign language teachers teach English vocabulary to the visually impaired (VI) young learners, what challenges they face and whether they can cope with these challenges in this particular process. The participants are two EFL teachers working at a primary and secondary school for blind and visually impaired students in Adana, Turkey. Semi-structured interviews have been utilized to collect data. Content analysis results revealed that both teachers most frequently utilized auditory teaching techniques, used L1 and computer assisted teaching techniques while teaching vocabulary to VI young learners. Semi-structured in-depth interviews also provided insights into the challenges faced while teaching vocabulary to VI young learners. Data showed that the orthography, material shortage, time constraints and dependency of students on other people to study were the main difficulties experienced by both teachers.

Keywords

• English,vocabulary teaching,visually impaired

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