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DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.089.021.201704.609-622
Project Work Management Addressing the Needs of BVI Learners of EFL
Tatiana S. Makarova
Associate Professor, Chair of English Language Theory and Cross-cultural Communication, Moscow City University (4/1 2nd Selskohozyaistvenniy Proezd, Moscow 129226, Russia), Ph.D. (Pedagogy), ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0148-4927, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Eugenia E. Matveeva
Associate Professor, Chair of English Language Theory and Cross-cultural Communication, Moscow City University (4/1 2nd Selskohozyaistvenniy Proezd, Moscow 129226, Russia), Ph.D. (Philology), ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6002-5283, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Maria A. Molchanova
Associate Professor, Chair of English Language Theory and Cross-cultural Communication, Moscow City University (4/1 2nd Selskohozyaistvenniy Proezd, Moscow 129226, Russia), Ph.D. (Philology), ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7254-9359, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Elena A. Morozova
Associate Professor, Chair of English Language Theory and Cross-cultural Communication, Moscow City University (4/1 2nd Selskohozyaistvenniy Proezd, Moscow 129226, Russia), Ph.D. (Pedagogy), ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3880-195X, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Natalia V. Burenina
Dean, Faculty of Foreign Languages, National Research Mordovia State University (68 Bolshevistskaya St., Saransk 430005, Russia), Ph.D. (Philology), ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6613-6857 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Introduction: it is known that inclusive education that opens access to education and facilitates students with special educational needs to socialize successfully is concentrated in special schools whilst mainstream teachers generally lack the methodology of teaching disabled students inclusively. The aim of the article is searching the best ways of educating students with special needs and providing specific conditions of the educational process in mainstream schools.
Materials and Methods: the research is based on the results of fulfillment of a number of projects that deal with teaching and educating blind and visually impaired learners and in which all the authors of the article were involved. The problematic approach, the logical method and observation were applied to the research; analysis, comparison, generalization being the most important components of the study. The quantitative data were collected, analyzed and resumed as well.
Results: the impact of project work implementation on academic and social skills development of blind and visually impaired students is shown and various types of projects that can be made by visually impaired learners are presented. The authors give their comments when analyzing different ways of adapting research activities to the needs of BVI learners. When speaking in detail on the role of web tools as maximizers of students’ potential the authors refer to their own experience in implementing web tools in project work with blind and visually impaired learners.
Discussion and Conclusions: university teacher-training programs should be revised and improved by offering additional courses aimed at educating impaired students through doing research or project work. Special attention should be paid to developing the instructors’ project management skills in terms of teaching English as a foreign language to learners with special needs. It should be noted that different methods and various technological tools are to be used in order to develop research and creative skills of blind and visually impaired learners in an EFL classroom. The article itself, its references and links can be used within the course of lectures and seminars on Methodology of Teaching Foreign Languages, and can also be applied when developing a course of re-training of in-service teachers with particular focus on teaching foreign languages to students (pupils) with special educational needs.
Keywords: English as a foreign language, blind and visually impaired, project work management, academic and communicative skills, web tools
For citation: Makarova T.S., Matveeva E.E., Molchanova M.A., Morozova E.A., Burenina N.V. Project work management addressing the needs of BVI learners of EFL. Integratsiya obrazovaniya = Integration of Education. 2017; 21(4):609-622. DOI: 10.15507/1991-9468.089.021.201704.609-622
Contribution of the authors: Tatiana S. Makarova – formulating the concept of teaching EFL to BVI learners in Russia; initiating research into the best practices of teaching EFL to BVI learners via project work; studying Russian and foreign source materials on specifics of teaching disabled lear ners; result analysis; writing the article. Eugenia E. Matveeva – exploring and reviewing source materials on teaching EFL to BVI learners in Russia and abroad; analysis; writing the article. Maria A. Molchanova – formulating the concept of implying web tools in BVI learners’ project work management; researching into the best practices of implementing web tools in blind and visually impaired learners’ project work in English, reviewing source materials; analysis and primary conclusions; writing the article. Elena A. Morozova – formulating the concept of BVI EFL learners’ project work management, analyzing Russian and foreign experience in developing EFL teachers’ project management skills to learners with special needs; initiating a contest “Breakthrough: New Challenges” of English projects for BVI EFL learners throughout Russia; critically reviewing source materials; analy sis; writing the article. Natalia V. Burenina – participating in the discussion of the materials; reviewing research methods; analysis; proof-reading; editing and adding to the text of the article.
All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
