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As discussed in this course, there are many types of English language learners, varying in age, culture, motivation, etc., that I may encounter in my career, and it is therefore important to know different strategies for teaching special groups. One group in particular that I feel drawn to teach is children and teens with disabilities. My younger brother has Autism Spectrum Disorder, and through observing his journey in the public educational system in the US, I have noticed that studying a foreign language is not an experience that is accessible to all. Students with special needs are often left out of the foreign language classroom, perhaps simply due to oversight, or perhaps due to the belief that these students can’t learn a foreign language or benefit from studying one. This is not at all true, and my personal experience has proven to me that learning a new language can only be an enriching experience for everyone, regardless of ability. For the majority of my undergraduate career, I had the opportunity to teach Japanese at a local elementary school as part of a course offered at my college. The class I was assigned happened to be a special day class consisting of fourth through sixth graders. Each student was unique in their level of ability. Some kids’ difficulties were behavioral, some had learning disabilities. A few had very limited speech. Dealing with just one of these issues seems challenging for a teacher, but having such a diverse array of needs seems even more difficult. I was definitely intimidated at first, especially to teach the students who had trouble communicating in their native language. How could I get them to express themselves in a completely foreign one? The secret is of course to focus on the person, not the disability. My students all had official diagnoses, but that was not the most important thing about them. My job was not to teach to a label but rather to teach to children, and the strategies that are effective for teaching children, like those discussed in this TEFL course, prove to be effective for all children regardless of ability. Attention spans are short among young learners, so lessons must be fast-paced and engaging. Long explanations or instructions quickly result in lost interest among the students, so I learned to keep things concise. I found that the kids were most excited about activities involving movement, music, or art, and it was important for them to be excited about the day’s lesson in order to ensure participation. My students were curious about Japan (I received a lot of interesting questions each day), but they weren’t always eager to learn new vocabulary or grammatical structures because the relevance for doing so wasn’t salient to them. As such, I learned to disguise the learning in those activities that they loved best. These are the same techniques all teachers should use with young learners. I can’t pretend that nothing was different between my class and classes of only typically developing students. We moved at a slower pace, and I had to incorporate much more repetition and review of topics than would probably be necessary in other classes. Even with the extra time and support, some of my students still struggled greatly to catch on to the basic concepts. Each student is different though, and while we may have to adjust expectations for each one, we can still encourage them to reach their own maximum potential. I am confident that all of my students benefitted from Japanese lessons: they were pushed out of their comfort zones, introduced to an unfamiliar culture that will broaden their worldview, and given the chance to interact positively with each other while experimenting with a new language. I think every person deserves this chance to be exposed to a foreign language and culture. These may not be the typical students that an English teacher abroad expects to teach, but I plan on including them in my teaching career. Learning a foreign language is about being able to express oneself in new ways. Students with disabilities too often have their choices taken away from them and their voices ignored; here is a way to restore some agency while simultaneously increasing intercultural understanding.
