scholarly journals TEACHING LANGUAGE TO THE SPECIAL CHILDREN: CHALLENGES AND POSSIBILITIES

Author(s):  
Quazi Farzana Yesmin ◽  
Sifat Ullah ◽  
Mohammad Ehsanul Islam Khan

Since communicating people is one of the first and foremost obstacles to autistic children, it is a basic need for them to get vigilant and appropriate nurture for language acquisition. Moreover, to develop the language skills of special children appropriately, it is essential to ensure effective language teaching. The primary objective of this study was to identify the challenges that the teachers face in the class and to bring out the possibilities of teaching the mother tongue to the special children as a part of special education. As language learning is the leading step of special education, the study aims to contribute to the field by pointing out the challenges and the possibilities. The study was conducted by collecting data from three different schools of special children by following a qualitative method. The findings revealed that inadequate understanding, proper classroom facilities, lack of awareness and insufficient language training created a great challenge for the teachers in teaching the language to the special children. The study also exposed that special training, a well-decorated classroom, regular speech therapy, and change of outlook minimized the challenges and made language teaching more effective. KEYWORDS: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Special Education Needs (SEN), Communication, Language Proficiency

2021 ◽  
pp. 016264342110335
Author(s):  
Nur Siyam ◽  
Sherief Abdallah

Good coordination among school staff and families leads to increased learning quality and academic success for students with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). This pilot study aims to investigate the use of mobile technology for the coordination of therapy and learning for students with SEND. This study first follows a participatory design methodology to identify the key design principles required to inform the design of a coordination mobile app for special education. Then, a mobile app (IEP-Connect) is designed and implemented with the aim of facilitating information sharing between different parties involved in the intervention of students with SEND. The proposed app uses the Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) as the focal point of coordination. The evaluation of the app focused on students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as their learning requires sharing information from different distributed sources. Results from the usability study revealed that the app has “good” usability and that participants were satisfied with the use of the app for recording and sharing IEP information. The results of this study provide an understanding of the ways in which a coordination app for special education could be made easy and rewarding to use.


Author(s):  
Ali Al-Issa ◽  
Ali Al-Bulushi ◽  
Rima Al-Zadjali

As a high-stakes international language proficiency benchmark, the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) requires different and special Language Learning Strategies (LLS), which pose numerous challenges to its takers. Some Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) majoring in English Language Teaching (ELT), have therefore, failed to achieve an overall score of Band 6 on the IELTS as a language proficiency requirement and a condition mandated by the Ministry of Education for selecting English language teachers among. This qualitatively driven hermeneutic phenomenology study, hence, discusses this issue from an ideological perspective. The study triangulates data from semi-structured interviews made with six fourth-year ELT Student Teachers (STs) at SQU and the pertinent literature. The critical discussion revealed various ideologies about the powerful impact of the IELTS on the STs’ English language development. The findings have important implications for the practices of the teachers in the Omani ELT school system and elsewhere.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-106
Author(s):  
Alicia Chabert

Summary This paper aims to demonstrate that using a plurilingual and ecological approach to English language teaching can achieve better results in primary school independently of the mother tongue of the student. This article is based on the initial results of our international research carried out in three very different countries (Norway, China and Spain). While the author´s research project involves 328 participants, we will present the results of the first phase of the experiment, including 133 students. In this paper, we propose a plurilingual communicative approach to English teaching as a foreign language, making a distinction between languages for communication and languages for identification. This research examines the current teaching policies in the participating countries, and analyses cross-cultural and cross-linguistic perspectives in English language teaching while promoting the positive use of the mother tongue as a connecting tool in the students’ communication system. The subjects of this study were divided in control and experimental groups, in which they received traditional and plurilingual approach respectively. After the classes they completed a test and were then supplied with a Likert scale questionnaire focused on understanding their attitude and motivation towards mother tongue and English language learning. Based on observation and results obtained, we can conclude that a plurilingual approach that uses L1 as a tool in English teaching improves English learning, as well as develops an ecological understanding of languages.


2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Zulfikar Zulfikar

Using mother tongue (L1) in a foreign language (L2) classrooms is inevitable. Despite the debate over the adequacy of using L1 in the teaching of L2, this paper argues using L1 in the classroom does not hinder learning, and that L1 has a facilitating role to play in the classroom and can help L2 learning and acquisition. This paper shows that L1 is an inseparable part of language teaching, and it has several functions for both the students and teachers in English language learning and teaching. Therefore, those who believe L1 has a minimal role to play in the teaching of a foreign language are invited to think again of its role and contributions it makes to the fields of language learning and teaching.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustapha Boughoulid

The increase in the needs of the English language learners (ELLs) and their endless demands in terms of achievement and proficiency in all the educational systems all over the world urged teachers and educators to call for new teaching strategies that sound more adequate and appropriate in the classroom. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) Model emerged as one of the worldwide prominent teaching methods that guarantee the ELLs success, especially when it has to do with the understanding of the content and language learning meanwhile. With its diverse culture and prominent engagement in terms of education, Morocco represents a fertile field for the implementation of the SIOP Model that has proven in different contexts its adequacy in helping ELLs achieve proficiency. This study is about a quasi-experimental research that is implemented in an urban school known for its diversification in terms of mother tongue, socio-economic status, gender, and background. Given these different circumstances of the learners, the findings reported after the adoption of the SIOP Model as a teaching approach showed that it is a reliable and adequate teaching method in terms of content and language proficiency. The use of wh-questions as key indicators to measure the learners’ capacity of understanding and responding correctly throughout the experiment phase showed the superiority of the ELLs in the SIOP classes in contrast to the learners in the mainstream classes. This superiority is embodied, especially in terms of the high scores obtained in providing correct answers in a short duration of time. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0726/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>


Proglas ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Cholakov ◽  

The present paper is focused on Lyuben Georgiev’s innovative ideas concerning Bulgarian language teaching. The author’s new ideas presented in his work The Mother Tongue in Our Junior High Schools and High Schools (a Language Teaching Endeavour) (1933) have not been the subject of scientific research so far. L. Georgiev’s set of didactic ideas is important evidence for the overcoming of the Herbartian model and the orientation of language teaching towards the formation of communicative competencies. Emphasizing the creative nature of pedagogical interaction, Lyuben Georgiev offers a comprehensive system of ideas – a system that is in line with modern trends in language learning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-43
Author(s):  
Henry Widdowson

Abstract Linguistics has always been taken as the authoritative frame of reference for how language is represented as a pedagogic subject, and as approaches to linguistic description have changed so accordingly have approaches to language teaching. But the purposes that determine what aspects of language are to be abstracted as relevant for linguistic description do not correspond with those of language pedagogy. What linguistics provides are ways of specifying what is to be taught as the eventual learning objective in relative disregard of the learning process, a process that it is the essential purpose of pedagogy to promote. An alternative to this customary objective driven approach, would be to focus not on acquiring competence in a particular and separate L2 but on extending the general capability for using language as a communicative resource that learners have already acquired in their L1. Such an approach effectively makes the primary objective of pedagogy the development of the learning process itself.


2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Seedhouse

Interest in Conversation Analysis (CA) and its possible applications in the fields of language learning and language teaching has grown considerably over the last five years. There are now a range of publications which explore this area. The article therefore attempts to synthesise the current state of the research and identify the issues and problems that have arisen and those areas which are suitable for further research. This article starts with a brief introduction to CA methodology and then discusses the range of areas within the broad field of language learning and teaching in which CA has been applied: teaching languages for specific purposes; language teaching materials design; language proficiency assessment; language classroom interaction; NS–NNS (native/non-native speaker) talk; and code-switching. It then discusses the relationship between CA, Applied Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition, and examines the complex issue of what CA can contribute to the study of ‘learning’. The issues are illustrated by an example of a CA analysis of language learning processes. The article proposes that there are now three distinct approaches to the application of CA methodology to the field of language learning and teaching. The article concludes by positioning CA as a social science research methodology and considers possible future directions for research.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 516
Author(s):  
Mohammad Owais Khan

The present study attempts to highlight the issues related to the Tribulations and Counteractive measures for teaching and learning English to Intermediate students of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The language policy in intermediate college education emerged as a social and personal problem. The quality of English Language teaching in majority of Indian Intermediate Colleges presents a very appalling picture. Teachers’ language proficiency, exposure to language and teaching materials is major concerns for quality English language learning. In reality intermediate students’ situation in UP is very difficult. They don’t have good opportunities as the big cities’ students have. These students consider English as a subject not as a language. So they focus only on examination not on the learning. This is an area which needs proper investigation. This study and the remedial measures suggested at the end will hopefully help students and teachers in learning and teaching English easily and appropriately. The study will also be useful for teachers, scholars, course designers and material producers of English language teaching.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 516
Author(s):  
Maria Zenaide Farias de Araújo ◽  
Janete S. Santos ◽  
Elbia Haydée Difabio

  RESUMEN Las autoras sitúan esta investigación dentro de los presentes cambios educativos que involucran la práctica del maestro-pedagogo, en lo que concierne a la educación lingüística, a partir de los siguientes problemas: 1) ¿Cómo incorporan o incorporaron conceptos de enseñanza de lengua como conjunto de variedades los maestros de la 4ª serie del nivel primario? 2) ¿Cómo usarían ellos un léxico específico sobre el habla amapaense, para tratar la noción de lengua como conjunto de variedades, considerando el paradigma de sustentabilidad en la educación lingüística? Para dar solución a estos problemas se elaboró el siguiente objetivo general: - Analizar el discurso docente sobre la práctica de enseñanza de lengua, concerniente a variación lingüística, en la 4ª serie del nivel fundamental, a partir del uso de un léxico específico sobre el habla local, considerando el paradigma de sustentabilidad en la educación lingüística. Para alcanzar tal objetivo, se realizó una investigación exploratorio-analítica, de metodología cualitativa y de cuño interpretativo. La especificidad del objeto requiere, en este caso, que se utilice la contribución teórico-metodológica de la Sociolingüística Variacional (SV) y Sociolingüística Educacional (SE), y para la sustentabilidad en educación, el aporte de Hargreaves y de Fink, además de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas para Educación, Ciencia y Cultura (UNESCO), entre otros. Para el análisis de los discursos, se emplean recortes del PCNEF de lengua portuguesa de la escolaridad inicial y de los Proyectos Pedagógicos del Curso de Pedagogía de UNIFAP. Para la recolección de la información empírica, se optó por entrevistas semi-estructuradas y para la triangulación de datos, discursos documentales y el generado en trabajo de campo. Las hipótesis se resumen: i) las prácticas pedagógicas para el aprendizaje lingüístico favorecen las dimensiones profundidad, amplitud y duración de la sustentabilidad educativa; ii) a pesar de la existencia de obras específicas sobre el habla local, en la educación lingüística del Estado no existe preocupación por enseñar (ni reflexionar sobre la lengua materna), a partir de lo local para alcanzar lo universal/nacional, orientación sugerida por los PCNEF-LP (documentos oficiales).   PALABRAS CLAVE: Educación Lingüística Sustentable; Formación Docente; Práctica Pedagógica Docente; Léxico; Enseñanza   ABSTRACT The authors situate this research within the present educational changes that involve the practice of the teacher-pedagogue, as far as linguistic education is concerned, from the following problems: 1) How do 4th grade teachers of the elementary education incorporate concepts of language teaching as a set of varieties? 2) How would they use a specific lexicon about Amapaense’s discourse, to treat the notion of language as a set of varieties, considering the paradigm of sustainability in language education? In order to solve these problems, the following general objective was developed: -Analyze the teacher’s discourse about the practice of language instruction on linguistic variation at the 4th grade of the elementary education, based on the use of a specific lexicon of local discourse, considering the paradigm of sustainability in language teaching. To achieve this objective, an exploratory-analytical investigation was made, as well as a qualitative methodology of interpretative essence. The object’s specificity requires, in this case, the use of the theoretical-methodological contribution given by the Variance Sociolinguistics (VS), the Sociolinguistic Education (SE), and the sustainability in education, supported by Hargreaves and Fink, in addition to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), among others. For the speeches’ analysis, cutouts from the National Curricula Parameters for the Elementary Education and the Pedagogy Course Project from the Federal University of Amapá (UNIFAP) were used. For information collection, we opted for semi-structured interviews and data triangulation, documentary discourses and the generated material from the field work. Summarized hypotheses: i) pedagogical practices for language learning favor the depth, breadth and duration dimensions of educational sustainability; ii) despite the existence of specific works on the local discourse, within the State’s linguistic education there is not concern about teaching (or reflecting about the mother tongue), from local to universal/national, as suggested by the official documents.   KEYWORDS: Sustainable Linguistic Education; Teacher training; Teacher’s Pedagogical Practice; Lexicon; Teaching.     RESUMO Os autores situam essa pesquisa dentro das atuais mudanças educacionais que envolvem a prática do professor-pedagogo, no que se refere à educação linguística, a partir dos seguintes problemas: 1) Como incorporam ou incorporam conceitos de ensino de línguas como um todo? de variedades os professores da 4ª série do nível primário? 2) Como eles usariam um léxico específico sobre o discurso de Amapase, para tratar a noção de linguagem como um conjunto de variedades, considerando o paradigma da sustentabilidade na educação de línguas? Para resolver estes problemas o seguinte objetivo geral foi desenvolvido: - Analisar o discurso de ensino sobre a prática da língua de ensino sobre variação linguística na 4ª série do nível fundamental, a partir do uso de um léxico específico de discurso local, considerando o paradigma da sustentabilidade no ensino de idiomas. Para atingir este objetivo, foi realizada uma pesquisa exploratório-analítica, metodologia qualitativa e interpretação. A especificidade do objeto requer, neste caso, a teoria e metodologia contribuição Sociolingüística Variational (SV) e Sociolingüística Educação (SE) é usado, e para a sustentabilidade na educação, a contribuição de Hargreaves e Fink, mais Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, Ciência e Cultura (UNESCO), entre outros. Para a análise dos discursos, corta PCNEF Lusófona escolaridade inicial e ensinando Projeto Curso de Pedagogia UNIFAP são usados. Para a coleta de informações empíricas, optou-se por entrevistas semi-estruturadas e triangulação de dados, discursos documentários e gerados em trabalho de campo. As hipóteses são resumidas: i) as práticas pedagógicas para a aprendizagem de línguas favorecem as dimensões profundidade, amplitude e duração da sustentabilidade educacional; ii) apesar da existência de trabalhos específicos sobre a fala local, na educação linguística do Estado não há preocupação em ensinar (ou refletir sobre a língua materna), desde o local até alcançar o universal / nacional, sugerido por o PCNEF-LP (documentos oficiais).   PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Educação Linguística Sustentável; Formação de Professores; Prática Pedagógica de Ensino; Léxico; Ensino.


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