The inclusion of students with disabilities in the education system results in content or assessment accommodations to suit the students’ special needs and to ensure they have acquired the objectives listed in the curriculum. In this paper, we aim at proposing different ways to accommodate a university English language test to a partially blind student who used text-to-speech tools (TTS) in order to provide them with accurate assessment. To carry out this research, the student has been monitored throughout the course to see which accommodations fit their1 needs best. All in all, we have observed that read-aloud accommodations lead to a better inclusion of the partially sighted student and better performance.
<p>Several studies have revealed that computer applications offer a vast potential for teaching and learning. Open Educational Resources (OERs) can be especially beneficial to generate innovative abilities in the classroom related to new means of communication and collaboration (Conole and Alevizou, 2010). As regards the teaching of foreign languages, OERs have been acknowledged to be a useful tool for vocabulary acquisition (Bărbuleț, 2013), for enhancing text reading (Alkahtani, 1999), for writing (Krajka, 2000), and for improving pronunciation (Lee, 2008). Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programmes as a means of learning-by-playing in the classroom have also proven to facilitate the acquisition of English vocabulary and pronunciation through games (Young & Wang, 2014).</p><p>This study aims to explore the implementation and use of an online tool such as <em>Wordclouds</em> in the English for Psychology classroom at university in order to improve vocabulary retention and the overall learning of English in the specific field of Psychology. By means of exposing students to psychological pathologies, they will be asked to generate vocabulary word clouds to check their vocabulary retention and keyword selections at two different stages, being exposed to specialised texts before and after the reading of those texts later. Computer applications in the ESP classroom are combined here with group work development. Previous research has shown that working collaboratively facilitates learning, primarily through comparative reflection and peer learning (Angehrn & Maxwell, 2009; Evans & Cuffe, 2009).</p><p>Results have shown that the exploitation of students’ background knowledge through the tool <em>Wordclouds</em> has definitely aided vocabulary retention of keywords about psychological pathologies as well as improved their English for psychology language accuracy.</p>
Writing proficiency in a foreign language has been increasingly demanded in the workplace due to the value of multilingualism; thus, it cannot be neglected in the English classroom. ICTs have gained momentum in the development of competences in the target language as a motivational asset, not least writing skills. In that sense, this paper seeks to inspect the effects speech recognition tools have in terms of motivation and written production. This study was conducted at a Spanish university with 55 first-year Translation and Interpreting undergraduates who were surveyed about the applicability of the dictation tools available in Microsoft Word® and Google Docs® to compose a written text. Results suggest that, despite its limitations, speech recognition can prove useful for learners and can result in a motivational innovative strategy to engage them in the writing process.
Accessibilitat i traducció audiovisual (Audiovisual Accessibility and Translation, in English) by Anna Matamala (2019) is a book written in Catalan which delves into the possibilities of making the audiovisual experience complete for all consumers by modifying content. With the rise of audiovisual and virtual content in the communication media, many people with disabilities such as hearing loss or visual impairment are left behind in the most run-of-the-mill experiences, especially those containing aural and visual elements as they cannot fully participate in the imaginary construct created by the voices, images and sounds. This book not only intends to show how to accommodate films, series and TV programmes to the needs of the audience, namely the hard of hearing and the blind or partially blind, but it also provides a general overview of the job of the translator, including translation techniques, along with an analysis of media accessibility. Furthermore, the book proposes activities for the reader to reach their own conclusions and experience first-hand. In doing so, Matamala captures the reader’s attention and attains reader’s interaction and participation, making traditionally passive reading an active learning experience. Although this book covers the subject of translation, it is not only addressed to professional translators inasmuch as they are already acquainted with the information regarding translation techniques and professional aspects of the job. The audiences that, to my mind, would benefit from this book the most are translation teachers and students, due to its manual layout. Matamala has written and designed this book in a way that learning occurs gradually; that is to say, definitions and more general aspects of translation are presented and illustrated at the beginning of the book to culminate in the explanation of those techniques that cater for the consumers’ needs in order to accommodate content. The aim of content accommodation is to maximise the audiovisual experience in people with disabilities, namely subtitles, visual description or audio subtitling among others, in order to approach audiovisual content to them.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.