To:
From:
Philip Fournier
Date:
Friday,
August 26, 2005
Subject: WR8: Assess and
accommodate needs of ESL, elderly, and disabled adults
In my eighteen years of teaching, I have had
a few, though not very many, of the adults addressed in this assignment. I have written in past assignments about some
of them, but in this assignment will address them somewhat comprehensively.
As far as the needs of non-native speakers
of English, I have actually had more experience as a fellow student than as an
instructor in this area. Back in the mid
1970’s when I attended
In my own case I have only had Spanish
speakers with limited skills in English to deal with. Since I speak fluent Spanish, I have made it
a point to address their needs in their own language when appropriate. One thing that I have tried to avoid,
however, is to casually speak Spanish with my Latin students in front of the
non-Spanish speaking students. It is one
thing to translate the lesson into the student’s own language; it is quite
another to insult anyone by purposely chatting in front of them in a language
they cannot understand. It tends to
create suspicion and mistrust.
One often-repeated experience has been that
of the older adult, and these experiences have been overwhelmingly
positive. Perhaps it was helpful that my
own upbringing taught me respect of the older ones. But as an instructor, I found myself in the
strange position of being an authority figure in front of those who were my
betters in both life experience and age.
Nevertheless, I held a certain advantage because I had kept up with
technology. I remember one class in
which I spotted an older man in the back of the room who looked familiar. The reason, it turns out, that he looked
familiar was because he had been the automotive department head at
I appreciated the maturity and natural
leadership that the older adults brought with them to class and attempted to
capitalize on it for the good of all.
Often they were technologically challenged. Computers seem in a certain sense to be like
a foreign language. Their use comes very
easily to children, yet they are very intimidating to older adults. I notice even now how older adults tend to
struggle with the manual dexterity of running a mouse. I try to teach the use of key strokes when possible
because of this handicap, though Windows doesn’t make it very easy for me. I have been reasonably successful in helping
older adults to prosper in my classes by respecting their life experience and
showing that respect in front of the younger students by making them leaders in
the lab. Often, though they were less
knowledgeable technically speaking than others, their natural sense of
leadership would lend order to the group and make for a very positive learning
experience in the lab. I think the
increased awareness I have gained in this class will help me to improve.
As far as physical disabilities, I have
experience only with one deaf person. He
was extremely deaf, but had learned lip reading rather than sign language, so a
signing interpreter was not of use to me.
I had to teach myself to look directly at my students, particularly to
direct my face toward him, and not to talk with my back turned while writing on
the board, a habit that was very hard to overcome. One change I will make in the future is to
ensure that handicapped students get their doctor’s certification taken care of
early on, so they can register as disabled persons with the SSD office and
therefore both the student and myself can take advantage of whatever help may
be available. I have mentioned before in
WR7 how I was force to eliminate video tapes from my instruction due to this
one deaf person, since there were no captions on the tape. Video tape instruction can be very helpful to
the visual learner with its animated graphics; but without captions it was just
a frustration to my deaf student.
I have heard of blind people learning to
overhaul transmissions. I think it would
take a very specially trained instructor to conquer that kind of a
challenge. But the worst I have had to
deal with is older adults with poor eyesight and the only accommodation
necessary was to move them to the front of the classroom. Since driving is almost guaranteed to be a
prerequisite for any auto repair technician, there is little incentive for sight
impaired persons to enter the field.
The only other physical disabilities I have
experienced was a student with only one arm.
He could do almost anything, but one thing he could not do is wash his
hand, being as he had only one. It seems
obvious once you consider it, but it is not a problem that leaps right into
your mind when you think of the difficulties facing someone who has lost a
limb. His other shortcomings were easily
accommodated with the help of the other students. But washing somebody else’s hand is a bit up
close and personal. Fortunately, the
student had a personal friend in the class who was accustomed to helping him
with this particular chore. I have often
wondered since then how I would handle it if another such student should attend
my class, but I presume I would just have to be up front about it, and ask the
student what he or she would be comfortable with. We also now have the benefit of latex or
vinyl gloves that helps to reduce the chore of hand washing for any technician
who can get used to using them.
As far as learning disabilities, I fear I
have had many of these over the years and simply not realized it. After all, they may not have even known
themselves not so many years ago. But
now, if they don’t inform me early on, the first test will probably tell me
that they are having trouble assimilating the information, or at least putting
it down on a test. What I need to do in
the future is start in early with learning how to best meet the learning style
of the handicapped person. Already I
have a better understanding of the need for using a variety of methods to
address the needs of the auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learner. The school has a learning center with staff
on hand trained in the varied needs of the learning handicapped. If I can identify such early on, the learning
center can help me custom tailor at least part of my lesson plan to meet their
peculiar needs. Obviously I can’t be all
things to all people, and the school has a mandate that we instructors must
address critical thinking skills. I’m
still not convinced that it is possible to teach critical thinking to each and
every student, but I certainly make the effort, and I believe this class has
taught me more ways to make sure I am effective at doing just that.