Inclusion - excellence for all
SEN management issues
Papers & recommended reading |
Editorial reviews | Task for trainees
Teaching modern languages
to pupils with special educational needs? With pleasure! (pdf
document)
Deane, M. (1992) Language Learning Journal, 6, pp 43-47
The author addresses some of the issues surrounding the teaching of Modern Languages to pupils with special educational needs.
With the introduction of Modern Languages for all in the early 90s teachers have had to learn to adapt their teaching strategies to cater for the learning needs of all pupils including those with a special educational need and those at the lower end of the ability range.
The paper gives pointers as to what works well to support Modern Languages learners in this situation. These strategies range from how to set suitable objectives and provide activities leading to success, to how to develop all linguistic skills and assess progress.
Having access to the same curriculum as anyone else can lead to increased self-esteem and self-image, and appropriate strategies need to be used in order to help the learners achieve in Modern Languages.
Foreign
language learning and inclusion: Who? Why? What? – and How?
McColl, H. (2005), Support for Learning, 20(3), pp 103-108
The notion of ‘languages for all’ has taken a hiding in the current educational and political climate. Education within a mainstream schooling framework for pupils with SENs, and the ‘optional’ status of foreign language learning at Key Stage 4 have all but reconfirmed MFL as a subject reserved for ‘higher ability’ pupils. So “the case for including children with special educational needs in foreign language classes has to be made with greater clarity than ever” says the article abstract.
The author sets about this task with justifiable vigour and skilfully argues we have to reconsider our overall aims and re-articulate them in terms that make sense to ALL members of our local and wider communities; to achieve this will involve not only pursuing notions of communicative competence and adapting our expectations of linguistic accuracy, but exploring aspects of intercultural awareness – the making of “EXPLICIT links between what is distant-and-strange and what is close-and-familiar”. The author proactively suggests the steps we need to take in order to make MFL study rewarding.
The article can be accessed and downloaded via a particular page of Hilary
McColl’s website called Why?,
The website hosts a discussion informed by research on the inclusion of
ALL children in foreign language learning. The principles are of the highest
pedagogical order: via the study of other cultures and other languages enabled
by appropriate content and methodologies, we will be recognising our own,
and the pupils’, responsibilities to global citizenship, and while engaged
on this journey we might enhance the pupils’ literacy across the curriculum.
and their social and learning skills.
A successful recipe? Aspects of the initial training of secondary
teachers of foreign languages
Pearson, S., Chambers, G.N. (2005), Support for Learning, 20(3), pp 115-122
As an ITT MFL tutor, you will very likely identify with the concerns expressed in this article as to whether current courses offer consistent, coherent and equal opportunities in relation to inclusive education to all training MFL teachers.
In a bid to inform practice at Leeds University, and to contribute to the wider debate about developing inclusive education, the authors report on a small-scale study involving a group of prospective teachers of foreign languages in secondary schools. They seek to establish within which student teacher ‘communities of practice’ worthwhile opportunities and experiences lie, and to explore the nature of shared expertise in terms of the balance between procedural/technical knowledge and attitudes and values.
The authors conclude that there are very specific steps that can be taken
in order to improve continuity and coherence of student teachers’ experience
of inclusive education; within the context of the one-year PGCE course under
scrutiny here, the primary instrument in bringing about effective change
will be focused collaboration between the HEI-schools partnership.
Games and foreign language teaching
Macedonia, M. (2005) Support for Learning, 20, 3, pp 135-140
The National Curriculum Inclusion statement establishes three core principles
essential to the development of a more inclusive curriculum:
▪ Setting suitable learning challenges
▪ Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
▪ Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals
and groups of pupils.
The clear implication of these principles is that the first port of call in catering for the needs of all pupils, especially those with SENs, is management of the teaching and learning programme: in everyday terms, planning and preparation.
The paper tackles this issue head-on with its focus on the value of learning modern foreign languages via carefully exemplified and illustrated game formats.
The benefits of such an approach are explored in terms of second language acquisition theory, and the need for intensive and extensive opportunities for practice with the spoken word rather than the written word, in order to transform ‘declarative’ knowledge into ‘procedural’ knowledge. Resulting learner confidence from increased practice and the fun of the game-playing processes combine to effect a positive emotional response to the learning. The importance of this emotional interface with learning is emphasised strongly; advances in neurological sciences provide strong evidence that fun learning is effective learning.
A
bibliography of modern foreign languages and special educational needs
(word document)
Wilson, D. (work in progress)
Periodically updated, David Wilson’s A bibliography of modern foreign languages and special educational needs, on his excellent website Diversity and inclusion in modern foreign languages, currently contains over 1400 international print and online references on MFL and SEN. This constantly refreshed and comprehensive resource constitutes an essential map of current thinking on every aspect of MFL and SEN you could possibly imagine.
