Enrique Leganés

When Foreign Languages are not seen or heard
Foreign language education presents special challenges for teachers when students are visually or hearing impaired. On the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) Web site (http://www.afb.org), the organization offers helpful information for teachers to better understand terms and environmental influences related to low vision. And while most teachers are familiar with federal legislation and individualized education plans (IEPs), AFB also offers information on assistive technology assessments, functional vision assessments, and learning media assessments.

http://www.afb.org

Modern Foreign Languages and Special Educational Needs
The World Wide Web contains plenty of information about modern foreign language learning and about special educational needs as separate issues. The implications of SEN for MFL attract relatively sparse attention, which is why the present website seeks to redress the deficit.
This website is divided in the following issues:
· Glossaries of inclusive education terms.
· Teaching and learning resources.
· Provision and practice.
· Professional development.
· Special schools.
· Cognition and learning difficulties:
o Moderate learning difficulties.
o Severe learning difficulties.
o Specific learning difficulties.
· Communication and interaction difficulties:
o Speech and language difficulties.
o Autistic spectrum disorders.
· Emotional, behavioural and social difficulties.
· Sensory and physical difficulties:
o Hearing impairment.
o Visual impairment.
o Physical disabilities.

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/case/SEN.html#Top

Sandra Pérez Costa

http://www.elpforblind.eu/pd.php?lcode=EN&pd=1
The European Language Portfolio for the blind and visually impaired (ELPBVI). It’s funded by the European Commission. An interesting project proving it necessary for students with special needs, to have an adapted curriculum and approach to the learning of languages.
o to provide transparent and reliable information on language skills and competences of the learners
o to keep records of achievements in their language learning
o to maintain their motivation for language learning
o to plan their learning strategy
o to enhance their plurilingual and intercultural experience

http://www.braille.org/braille_books/
The International Braille Research Centre has developed a project for blind people to have a freer access to reading. They keep a collection of books in Braille that can be used by blind people. The main requirement is to have tools such as Braille Display device, or a Braille note-taker.
This link explains the importance of the project and offers a database of the titles both, by author and by title.

http://pbskids.org/arthur/parentsteachers/lesson/communication/index.html
This is a sample lesson plan for a unit designed for children with disabilities. Parents and teachers’ oriented. With downloadable materials (Adobe Acrobat is needed).
The main page is http://www.pbs.org

Carmen Macías Corredera

Blind students: AER ( Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired)

Description: The mission of this association is to provide education and rehabilitation services to people with visual impairments, offering professional development opportunities, publications, and public advocacy. It also offers to blind and visually impaired people different materials in order to improve their learning faculty.

http://aerbvi.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=3


Deaf students: Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

Description: It is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal integrating and coordinating basic and applied research relating to individuals who are deaf, including cultural, developmental, linguistic, and educational topics.

http://www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/deafed/about.html

Marta Villodres

E-LEARNING for blind students

With this web site we can be informed about using E-learning as a method for blind people. It also provides some explanations about how it works and some critics on the advantages and disadvantages of its use.
Different technologies of learning acquisition are also mentioned in order to make people understand the processes.
If you also need further information about this topic, bibliography is detailed.

http://www.formatex.org/micte2005/143.pdf

Teaching English to Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students at secondary school. Methodologies

This web site provides teachers of English at secondary schools new visions of the teaching processes.
Some methodological ideas are given as examples for those professionals who are interested in this area or have students with this type of disability in their classrooms.
Some advices for teachers are also included.


http://www.pen.ntid.rit.edu/ewc/engcr/I-Fleming/Prague%20Seminar2.pdf

In this second website teachers can find new materials and bibliography for teaching English to deaf people.

http://www.espaciologopedico.com/tienda/lista.php?Id=010703&actual=1

Lucía Mérida Luque

BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL EDUCATION FOR DEAL STUDENTS
This site will show you interested points which have been carried out at the University of Alabama for teaching English to deaf students such as the reasons behind bilingual-bicultural education, the population of deaf students who could benefit from it, the methods in the bilingual component and in the bicultural component, and the arguments against bilingual and bicultural education.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/6190/bibi.html

BLIND CHILDREN'S RESOURCE CENTER
Blind Children’s Resource Center is a very interesting website where you can find many things not just for how to teach blind children, but for deaf children as well. It presents possible questions a teacher or mother/father must wonder and all explanations and strategies they should follow.
I propose you these two links. The first one is the one I was looking for, it focus on blind children’s cases. And the second one is the front page where you can find all aspects they are working on.
http://www.blindchildren.org/textonly/to_edu_dev/3_5_3.html
http://www.blindchildren.org/textonly/index.html

Juan Carlos Criado

FOREING LANGUAGE LEARNING AND INCLUSION

Hilary McColl’s background is impressive. Among other things, she has worked on two European projects aimed at guaranteeing special needs students’ rights to learn languages. Being deaf herself, she is particularly concerned with children with hearing impairments. But her website also gives support in foreign languages to autistic children, children with dyslexia, learners with difficulties in communication, students who are blind or partially sighted and those with Down's syndrome. The link you have above will lead you directly to the section of her site which deals with how to teach foreign languages to these learners.
You will find the details of some projects and plenty of articles, resources and links which will be of interest to those involved in teaching foreign languages to learners with particular needs.

http://hilarymccoll.co.uk/specialneeds.html

CUED SPEECH E-LEARNING

The resource I propose this time is an online course in Cued Speech. The course is visually appealing, includes videos and makes us get down to working quickly.
But, what is Cued Speech? Although we could think that it looks similar to a sign language for the deaf, we are talking about another system of communication which uses hand-shapes to represent English sounds. According to the owners of the website, this system, which was invented in 1965, works very well when used together with British Sign Language (BSL) and can help deaf children to achieve literacy levels equivalent to the hearing ones.
http://www.learntocue.co.uk/player_content.html