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Pokrivčáková, S. et al. (2015). Teaching Foreign Languages to Learners with Special Educational Needs: e-textbook for foreign language teachers. Nitra: Constantine the Philosopher University. 128 p. ISBN 978-80-558-0941-0 presumptions for positive attitude and relationships between teachers and learners. Even if these basic conditions are fulfilled there are some general rules which might be followed in order to make learning and teaching process approachable for English teachers and learners. Classroom management covers classroom organization with seating arrangements, displays, and technologies in the classroom, including teaching styles, behavior, rules, relationships between teachers and learners, atmosphere and discipline (Scrivener, 2011). According to Pokrivčáková (2012, p.56) classrooms should be equipped with stimulating visuals (posters, schemas, etc.) and work displays; circular desks and flexible furniture, areas for small group work, space for kinesthetic activities, interactive equipment such as a white board, connection to the Internet/school network through a wireless network. Unfortunately, not many schools in Slovakia have above mentioned equipment available, even though a number of language labs have grown recently. From the organizational point of view, the situation is that furniture and seats are usually pre-arranged and cannot be easily changed for different lessons. However, in the opposite case, the best seating arrangement for language classes is a U-shape in which an eye-contact is maintained and space for physical activities is guaranteed. In a typical Slovak classroom, two pupils share one desk, there is a white or a black board, displays on the walls, rarely with an overhead projector, a computer and the Internet connection. However, even if English teachers can do very little within fixed furnished classrooms, they might still influence seating arrangements of learners according to their needs. Students with learning differences may be seated alone (i.e. individually, especially in case they are easily distracted or have problems with attention) or paired with their classmates who positively react and respond to them. Another possibility is to group all the learners with difficulties together in front of the classroom so that the individual approach of a teacher is easier. Kormos and Smith (2014) claim that personal space is very important for some learners with specific learning differences and sharing a table might be problematic. Especially, learners with ADHD or Asperger´s syndrome may appreciate, apart from their own desk; having a designated ´retreat´ they can go to if the classroom environment becomes too overwhelming for them. They suggest a quiet corner or a separate space. All in all, this space should be agreed at the start of the course and all learners should be made aware of its purpose. English teachers should also be aware of a fact that different levels of light, temperature and volume might be irritating for some learners and those with specific learning differences are considered to be hyper-sensitive to slight changes. Natural light is undoubtedly the best and fluorescent, flickering lights, or dying light bulbs may cause a big problem. Learners with dyslexia might experience blurring, shimmering or disappearing texts, impossible to be read due to visual distortion. This can easily happen even if the text is in black print on white paper which is quite usual. Teachers might ask learners to use colored overlays or tinted paper in order to reduce the glare. Practicing reading with the help of overlays once at a time might be also a funny and amusing moment in the class. Temperature and noise are also issues for learners who are prone to distraction. They might find it hard to focus if the temperature is not comfortable enough or noise becomes unbearable for them. Teachers should do their best to provide the classroom environment reasonably suitable for all the learners. Equipment and materials Recently, technological advances such as electronic devices or equipment supporting language teaching have grown enormously, yet paper-based technologies also still have a role to play (Kormos and Smith, 2012). As learners with specific learning differences have troubles with short-term and working memories they keep forgetting their assignments or bringing asked materials to the classroom. Therefore, organizers such as diaries, small notebooks, or mobile phone reminders are possible back-up systems. Another way might be the technique of appointing ´Buddies´ in the class in order to remember doing homework. Learners choose a friend from the classroom who takes responsibility over reminding and checking homework in order to fulfil assignment and bring it to the classroom the following day. Teaching explicitly 33
Pokrivčáková, S. et al. (2015). Teaching Foreign Languages to Learners with Special Educational Needs: e-textbook for foreign language teachers. Nitra: Constantine the Philosopher University. 128 p. ISBN 978-80-558-0941-0 planning skills and tracking homework, as well as instructing students on how to break down large projects into smaller tasks help students completing long-term assignments. Textbooks used in English classes are not always possible to be changed; however, additional material may be modified the way in which they are presented to the learners. Current trends in language teaching materials go towards a busy page, full of pictures and action. This might be very confusing for the learners with differences. Text windows made by cutting a hole in a paper or in ´L´ shaped pieces of paper that can be slid apart to change the size (Kormos and Smith, 2014). Text windows are recommended and widely used mainly by dyslexic students. Within the holistic approach in inclusive English classrooms, all the learners may use tinted foils or cut-out text windows when they practice reading texts silently or out loud and thus the learners with learning differences might not feel specially treated and on the opposite, the others may empathetically experience how it feels to be different. All in all, it might become an entertaining activity in order to enrich and vary teaching routines. The most important thing is to ensure that provided texts are large enough and in a font that can be easily read, with wider spacing. Recommended font is 12 point Arial, with clear text structuring, sometimes even numbering the lines. Students face classroom walls which are rarely white and empty. Teachers are promoted to have colored posters, pictures, projects and other materials displayed all over the room. However, attention disorders frequently occurring in learners with differences might be disturbed by too many pictures and displays. Scrivener (2011) recommends having walls around the board white and empty; however, suggests displaying additional materials (pictures, posters, etc.) in order to support multi-sensory perception. A reasonable use of visuals should be purposeful, refreshed after some time, or exchanged for something new. Nevertheless, project displays are important to support learners’ need for self-expression and fulfill purposefulness of classroom activities, as well as give reasonable feedback for a teacher and learners. Particularly, students with learning differences need to support their self-esteem in learning languages and be praised for even minimal success twice as much as other students. However, project displays should be preceded by personal presentation of the project and peer evaluation in order to enforce critical thinking of students and accomplish their feeling of being important in the teaching and learning process. Hands-on approaches, strategies and techniques in English inclusive classrooms Multi-sensory approach involves the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic ways simultaneously to enhance memory and learning of written language. According to IDA (n.d.) links are constantly made between the visual, auditory and tactile language in learning to read and spell. All levels of language are addressed, often in parallel, including sounds (phonemes), symbols (graphemes), meaningful word parts (morphemes), word and phrase meanings (semantics, sentences - syntax), longer passages - discourse and the social uses of language pragmatics). Thus, all language systems are covered. DysTEFL (2011, pp. 48-52) summarizes practical key principles of the multisensory approach as follows: Provide opportunities for learners to practice and review a concept frequently within the repetitive principle; Language should be taught in a logical progression and help students categorize concepts; Language concepts should be organized from simple to complex within structured, sequential principles; Teachers should build on what learners already know and make connections between the known and the new information (so-called cumulative principle; Systematically and explicitly the phonemes or speech sounds of the foreign language should be taught; Sounds of the letters in English and the letters the sounds represent within alphabetic/phonetic principle should be taught directly; 34
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