| As it is so often true with good ideas, this one is simple. | | | | The blind are used to listening to learning materials. |
| You already know what bilingual books and | | | | That is to say, to focus on an audio message is |
| audiobooks are. Just blend them, and you get bilingual | | | | nothing new for them and they should be able to take |
| audiobooks. Of course, the implementation requires a | | | | the greatest advantage of this new tool. |
| good deal of various skills, but on the whole, it is as | | | | So far, learning language methods have been heavily |
| simple as that: a talking book that speaks two | | | | relying on pictures. Despite the progress made in |
| languages. | | | | rendering images with grey-scaled touches, the |
| You get the language learning method that best | | | | system has been so scarcely used to teach |
| mimics the natural one; instead of having your mother | | | | languages that it cannot be taken into account. |
| explaining the world, so to speak, you have a voice | | | | The bilingual talking books give the blind students better |
| that gives you the translation. If you have already | | | | tools than any illustrated books. The use of pictures is |
| listened to simultaneous translations, you can easily | | | | limited to things that can be represented. How do you |
| imagine how a bilingual audiobook sounds like. | | | | draw a feeling, an opinion, or a grammatical phrase? |
| In order to learn a foreign language, the bilingual | | | | The translation does not face this kind of limitations |
| audiobook is better than the simultaneous translation | | | | and can render love, elegance, as well as phrases like |
| since the voices follow each other; there is no | | | | "as well as." |
| overlapping due to the speed of speech. You listen to | | | | Because the visually challenged are so much used to |
| a sentence in a language, then to the same sentence | | | | listening carefully, now that a new tool is at their |
| in the other. (According to the learning level of the | | | | disposal, they should make up lost time. And, since they |
| audiobook, the cutting may be smaller or larger than a | | | | already know how to listen to two things at a time, for |
| sentence.) | | | | example, in a movie, to the dialogues and to the voice |
| A bilingual audiobook makes things easier for the blind. | | | | off describing the scene, they are bound to shine in a |
| Obviously, it makes things easier for anybody, but | | | | profession that requires that rare training: simultaneous |
| there is no lack of learning tools for the sighted people, | | | | interpretation. |
| so it may be less important for them. | | | | |