TEFL Mustang Oklahoma

In the UK approximately 3% of the population has mild, moderate or severe learning difficulties/disabilities (LD). Though it is difficult to find the stats for many Asian and African countries, there is no reason to think that the numbers would be much different. Almost every classroom in the country will have at least one student with LD . Yet most teachers know very little about what this term means, how to adapt their teaching or how to connect in a positive way to these students. In this article, I want to explore how we can make the tefl course inclusive to students with learning difficulties. A bit more info… LD means that a person's ability to receive, process, store, express, and respond to information is affected due to a disorder in the brain. This a very broad description and as I don't have a lot of space, I will try to simplify it for this article: Most commonly students with LD find it hard to process several steps of spoken instructions, comprehend a long reading text, to focus on one activity for a long time and to transfer theoretical learned material into practice. They also often suffer from low self-esteem as they are considered ‘slow'. Students like these can present real challenges for teachers. Some of these students can be disruptive because they don't understand or can't keep up and so they start talking to others or try to be funny. Other students do the opposite and seem to disengage themselves from the lesson. They don't participate or offer responses which can also make the teacher feel that he/she isn't reaching this student. In my experience as a Special Needs teacher, I have learned that there are some very basic skills and methods that can help us create a better learning environment for all our students, particularly those with learning difficulties. • Simplicity o Do not overexplain a point or instruction. The key here is to come well prepared. Plan and practice how you will explain the lesson points and how you are going to give the instructions. If you repeat instructions, make an effort to use the same words each time. • Visual o Students with learning difficulties often struggle with too much text or too many words. Visual material is a great support to use : pictures to support new vocabulary, visual symbols to support grammar (triangle for verb, exclamation mark for exceptions, etc.), gestures to support verbal language (thumbs up for something positive, pretending to bite nails for something scary, etc.) • Interactive (pairwork, groupwork, discussion) o Many LD students have low confidence and are not sure they have done the work correctly or are scared to give an incorrect answer. When working with someone else they have the support and ‘cushion' before presenting to the class. Also they get to engage their other skills (social, verbal, creative, etc.) which gives them a higher chance of success and they feel part of a team. • Change it up o Try to change something at least every10 minutes. This can be activity, partners, seating arrangement, teaching props, etc. It is just to change the scene a little, so the brain stays engaged. • Humour and patience o These are the magic ingredients. Don't take yourself too seriously and don't assume a student is being difficult on purpose. The tefl ESA model lends itself well to including students with learning difficulties as it encourages variety and flexibility in its lessons. Much of what I have mentioned above fits particularly well with the Unit 5 course material. Conclusion Wherever one is teaching in the world, a teacher is highly likely to have one or more students with learning difficulties in their class and hopefully the above has served in some ways to prepare us for that. However, the above is not just helpful in engaging LD students ; it really is beneficial for all students to have variation, clear and simple instructions, visual reinforcement and interaction. Besides, when it comes to learning a new language most of us feel like we have learning difficulties at some stage !