Learning Disabilities in the World Language classroom

Have you ever heard your colleagues say things like “That student has no business in taking a foreign language” or, “There is NO WAY that student will ever pass a foreign language class?”

It’s frustrating, but we have all had that student. We have all been discouraged, angry and afraid to have that student on our roster. We don’t like setting kids up for failure and we want to give them the same opportunities that everyone else has. It’s a really tough situation for the student and the teacher, but there are several things you can do to make it less daunting for both of you. Instead of cringing at the sight of the IEP’s and 504’s, make a few small adjustments with the whole class to help those with learning disabilities be more successful in your World Language class.

Pick your battles.

I once had a 16 year-old boy in my class that stood at the back of the room everyday and played air guitar while I was teaching. It drove my student teacher nuts and she couldn’t get her head around why I didn’t discipline him. The boy and his parents had been experimenting with his ADD meds and my class was at the time of day they were wearing off. So I let him do his thing. He didn’t bother anyone (except my student teacher) and when it was time to do work (hands-on), he got down to business. He maintained a B average so he must have been listening to me while making his way through Stairway To Heaven. Sometimes, you just have to go with it.

Break it down.

Students with learning disabilities are often intimidated by learning a foreign language. There is a lot of information coming at them at once and that is scary. Clearly displaying a daily agenda that is broken down into several segments can help keep an LD student’s anxiety in check. It is important to incorporate several different types of activities into a single class period and move smoothly from one to another. As much as possible, have the students doing things that get them up and moving. Take them out to the courtyard or hallway whenever possible. Let them color (high school students love to color), draw, make Venn diagrams for a reading, anything to break up monotony. If a reading selection is 3 or 4 pages long, assign one segment or page at a time, with sufficient process time in between. A test can be given over several class periods, divided up in small sections. LD students need this, and “regular” students appreciate it.

Organizing everything into little bites can be really helpful for students with processing difficulties. For example, when writing on the white board, keep it totally clean except for the small piece of information being communicated at that very moment. LD students, especially those with dyslexia, have a very hard time processing a lot of stuff jumbled all over the place. The same goes for written documents and tests. Make materials as simplistic as possible. Information overload is hard for the most focused students, but it is almost impossible for anyone with processing difficulties. It seems like such an insignificant thing to most of us, but it can have a huge impact on learning.

Switch it up.

Switching up activities during a class period to include a variety of multisensory learning strategies can really help LD students succeed. In the World Language classroom we need to hit reading, writing, listening and speaking anyway, so we are in a good starting position. But we need to delve deeper in our planning to best accommodate all learners. Instead of posting that authentic news article in its original form on Schoology for the students to access on their iPads, copy and paste the information into a Word document, add LOTS of spacing, remove distracting illustrations or formatting and photocopy the result on paper so the LD student can have a tangible manipulative to work with. It is worth the extra time. Anything you can do to eliminate distractions helps far more than you can imagine.

Make it routine.

School is a pretty intimidating place for someone who has a hard time focusing and/or learning. Routine can help lessen anxiety when a student knows what to expect each day in your class. Establish a few activities that take place everyday at the beginning of your class so the students with anxiety or learning issues can be prepared and know they will be fine. It can be a welcome song, a daily journal entry, a reading of the date, or any combination of these as long as it is the same routine everyday.

As teachers, it’s our job to do all we can to help students succeed, no matter what hurdles life throws at them. These are just good teaching practices that can make learning a foreign language easier for everyone.