Methodology

Almost all the information backing up this annotated bibliography was extracted from
different kind of databases (JSTOR, ProQuest, ebookcentral, Dialnet, Scopus), and from
repositories of some universities such as ReDele. The databases were consulted via the
virtual library of the University ”Santo Tomas de Chile” containing a great number of
databases and libraries for free. Additional research was made so as to quote a video
interview published in the Perkinselearning website, in which, the educator Lucia Hasty
provides an overview of early literacy goals and objectives for working with children
who are blind or visually impaired through the Braille system.

Fuentes, A. R. (2005). ¿Cómo leen los niños con ceguera y baja visión?: Guía para
docentes y estudiantes, prácticos e investigadores, padres y madres... (1st ed.,
Vol. 1, Ser. 1). Archidona, Málaga, España: Aljibe.
doi:https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/bibustsp/reader.action?
docID=4536469&ppg=1

This book exposes how the reading decoding occurs in people with a visual disability as
well as the programs and resources that can be applied to facilitate such a decoding
process. In the first place, it is stated a conceptualization of visual disability from an
educative perspective, its taxonomy, and the principal conditions of the visual system
affecting the reading development. The author in this book, Antonio Fuentes, makes a
description of many investigating works and in the same way, their results are
presented. It is worthy to say that the approach of this work is didactic.
What matters most about this book is the mention of communicative systems by which
blind people access to written information, being the most important the so-called
Braille, a puniform method. Also, it is named the most priority abilities in the
development of children with a visual disability, such as the interest and motivation for
reading, bimanual, manual-fingerprint, and motor coordination for Braille readers (as
cited in Fuentes, 2009, p.98). Finally, the cognitive and metacognitive aspects related
to the reading process in blind people are analyzed ( as cited in Fuentes, 2009, p.121).

Morrissey, P. (1957). Reading Braille in Foreign Languages*. The Modern Language

Journal, 41(6), 265-268. DOI:10.1111/j.1540-4781.1957.tb01695.x

In this Journal article, it is given a general description of the Braille system and of how
its basic symbols have been adapted to the peculiar needs of the various languages of
other countries. The author, Patrick Morrissey, focuses on the difficulty given by
contracted Braille of some of the languages, based on his own experience in learning
foreign languages through the already mentioned system. The purpose of this work is
to contradict the claim that the acquisition of a foreign tongue in blind people is too
great to overcome.
Patrick Morrissey mentions the Standard English Braille, Grade Two, a contracted form
of Braille. This is of great relevance because, in the contracted forms, words and part-
words are indicated only by one or two braille cells. For instance, ”of the single-cell
sings, mention may be made of the sings for the words and, with, for, all of which may
also be used in writing such words as ford, forget, hand stand, either, and
withstand.”( as cited in Morrissey, 1957). Also, the author elucidates that the sings
used in contracted Braille are not the same in all languages, ” (…) because what may
stand for part-word or syllabic signs in English may have an other value in the
uncontracted braille of French, Greek, Irish, Portuguese and Spanish.” An example
presented is the sign for and in English Braille, whose same points combination
indicates the c in uncontracted French and Portuguese Braille.

Villoslada, A. (2013). La enseñanza de español como lengua extranjera a estudiantes

con deficiencia visual o ceguera: Propuesta didáctica de adaptación de
actividades para el DELE A1. (Master's thesis, Universidad Nebrija, 2009/2011)
(pp. 1-136). Madrid: RedELE. doi:http://www.mecd.gob.es/redele/Biblioteca-
Virtual/2013/memorias-master/Ana-Villoslada.html

The present thesis was written by Ana Villoslada, who describes metodológical
approaches which are best adapted to the second language teaching in blind people,
comprising the multisensorial didactic and cooperative learning. In the practice part of
this project, it is analyzed the statistic data, consisting of the relation between the
teaching of Spanish as a foreign language and the DELE diplomas, provided by the
’Cervantes’ institute.
What stands out the most about this work is the presenting of adapted activities for
blind learners adopting a communicative approach based on the interactionist
principles of the Activity Theory. Villoslada (2013), proposes a virtual platform aimed at
professors to use it as a tool containing material and sonorous resources, and at
students to use for doing comprehension reading and written expression activities.
Another important thing is the mention of different investigations about the process of
learning a second language in blind people.

Pring, L. (1984). A Comparison of the Word Recognition Processes of Blind and

Sighted Children. Child Development,55(5), 1865-1877. DOI:10.2307/1129933

In this journal, the author, Linda Pring, exposes experiments carried out to investigate
the differences in reading between congenitally blind children readying Braille and
sighted children dealing with print. These experiments focus on semantic processing,
word-frequency effects, and phonological recoding of single-word recognition.
Students from Dorton Hause School and Hanover Primary School took part in this
research project. It is worthy to say that the conditions of legibility are manipulated by
the author. This investigation is experimental.

According to Pring, the ”touch-say” method in reading for blind children is of equal
value as the ”look-say” in reading for sighted children. Consequently, the modality
adopted in each group does not interfere with the information processing of blind and
sighted children. Print (1984) found that ”the internal factual code used to represent
words for the blind appears to be available for word recognition and other
information-processing purposes”. Finally, the results of the experiments indicate that
the Braille System is less redundant than the print in the reading process in terms of
interword considerations, meaning, blind children recognize more information from
the context as a compensation mechanism.

Aikini, H. (2005). Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Blind and Visually

Impaired Young Learners: The affective Factor (Doctoral thesis, Universidad de
Castilla La Mancha, 2002) (pp. 47-247). Ciudad Real: Dialnet.
doi:https://ruidera.uclm.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10578/922/189%20Teaching
%20English.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

The purpose of Helena Aikini in this project was to explore the difficulties that blind or
visually impaired pupils face when acquiring a second language with a view of
developing tactile instructional material to facilitate their learning process. The sensory
deficiency of blind people is given more importance whereby, apparently, Instructional
material is key for improving the language process. To verify this hypothesis the author
designed two studies, mainstream settings, and summer camp. The instructional
material was elaborated after conducting a number of interviews with teachers, pupils,
and experts in the field of visual impairments and some observing mainstream school
EFL classes with blind children.
According to Aikini (2005), if the methodological process of teaching a second
language addressed the cognitive and affective aspects, the blind young learners’
attitude towards foreign languages would improve as well as their academic
performance. The key strength of this work is the allusion of how blind people acquire
a second language, to what Aikini concludes that blind learners perform the same
aptitude for learning foreign tongues as the sighted ones.

Hasty, L. (Director). (2009, July 29). Teaching Braille Reading & Writing [Video file].
Retrieved July 10, 2020, from
https://www.perkinselearning.org/videos/webcast/teaching-braille-reading-
writing#transcript

In the video, Lucia Hasty elucidates the importance of reading in blind children for
them to be able to experience such things that sighted children are able to perceive
through pictures. According to Hasty (2009), ”When a sighted child reads with a parent
or someone else, they are looking at the pictures and they are discussing the story, so
that's when language development really begins to happen”. It is also explained the
need for a concept of experience for students to represent their thoughts and actions.
That is why sometimes there is a lag with learners who are braille readers. The most
important topic is the mention that the author makes about the existence of some
methods to teach kids to use both hands and to use different if here to do different
kinds of jobs.