Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

Many secondary schools offer foreign language courses as electives or as graduation requirements, and many universities now require foreign language credits both for admission and for graduation. These requirements pose little challenge for most students; indeed, "For the student unencumbered by a learning disability, foreign language study is...an enriching and rewarding experience. For the learning disabled student, however, it can be an unbelievably stressful and humiliating experience, the opposite of what is intended" (Schwarz, 1997).

A list of resources aimed at understanding and serving these students in the foreign language classroom follows:

The article "Learning Disabilities and Foreign Language Learning" (1997)from LD Online provides information on why students with learning disabilities struggle in the foreign language classroom and gives suggestions on how to help. Retrieve from here.

The Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) offers suggestions for the college foreign language classroom which can be adapted to the secondary classroom. Look here.

For a wide array of links related to foreign language and learning disabilities, go to the foreign language teacher's guide to learning disabilities.

Finally, the following article explores differentiating instruction in the foreign language classroom and provides specific examples of differentiated activities.

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