Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to review the state of the matter concerning methodologies for the teaching of English to students with mild intellectual disabilities. Learning a foreign language appears to be a very difficult task for any learner, and more so for those students who are dealing with learning disabilities. Even though educational policies are inclusive, most currently teaching methodologies can result in exclusion as they do not take into account diverse individual learning styles. In mainstream classrooms, meeting the needs of heterogeneous groups becomes a daily challenge, especially in secondary school where the demands of general curriculum are stricter. Our educational system should provide foreign language teachers with theoretical and practical tools in order to respond to all children socio-educational needs accordingly. Although there is a dearth of literature regarding students with mild intellectual disabilities in relation to foreign language learning, successful examples of practices and revealing methodological approaches are cited and described in this paper. In this sense, we will mention some contributions from neurological research and its relationship with the multi-sensory approach that benefits students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in terms of meaningful inclusion in mainstream educational environments. Existing research methods and theoretical frameworks in foreign language acquisition are also examined, such as Gardner’s sociocultural model and Leontiev and Vygotski’s Activity Theory.

Keywords:

ELT methodologies, mild intellectual disability, special educational needs, inclusion.