English Content

 ICLP Bulletin

Helping the Blind One Shengci at a Time

Bryan K. Beaudoin

[Jan. 19] ICLP teacher Wan-Hong Jiang (江宛鴻) presented a set of audio English learning materials for masseuses at a meeting of the Association for the Blind of Taiwan (台灣盲人重建協會). In response to the growing need of masseuses to communicate with foreign clients, Jiang and ICLP students volunteered their time and energy to create an audio course for massage-related English and Japanese.

Accepting a package of CDs, director Huei-Hsing Huang (黃輝星) expressed his thanks to Jiang and student volunteers, as well as to ICLP for its institutional support. Established in 2003, the association helps the blind find employment and improve their children’s educational opportunities.

Jiang first noticed the particular need of blind masseuses when teaching English to blind students several years ago. “With the recent economic downturn and internationalization of Taipei, it’s become more important for blind masseuses to expand their market to include foreign customers,” she explained. Under Jiang’s guidance ICLP students Kathlene Baldanza, Kobin Kendrik, Jonathan Ying, and Akiko Hachisuka collaborated to design and record the materials.

Both Huang and Jiang noted the blind community’s continuing need for volunteers. In particular, blind parents often have difficulty helping their children with homework. Huang and Jiang called on ICLP’s active student body to reach out.

Using Audio Actively

唐明尊/ Tom Mason (美)

Audio files are an essential tool for all language students, not just those at the most elementary levels. Efficient use of audio material, namely interaction with the audio, results in faster, more accurate language acquisition. Interaction is not merely listening. While active listening (keenly discerning meaning, tones, structure, etc.), is an important part of interaction, active vocalization of the text using skills such as phrasal breakdown, looping, and backwards buildup, is the key to successful interaction, and ultimately one of the fastest routes to language acquisition. Learners who zealously and consistently interact with audio files find recently acquired language moves more quickly from passive use to active use. When language moves from a passive understanding to our active repertoire, we have truly internalized it – and internalization is, for most of us, our greatest aspiration.