Roseanna Peate on inclusion in foreign language teaching.
There are those who assume that learning Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) is unsuitable for students with SEND, and that instead, time should be given to strengthen their English language skills, but I want to challenge this assumption. I’ve heard the all too familiar cry of: ‘What’s the point – they aren’t going to take it for GCSE anyway!?’ But gaining language proficiency is not the only endgame, there is, in addition, the appreciation of other cultures. Surely no student with SEND should be excluded from the multilingual world in which we live? By taking a pupil-centred approach to language learning and truly understanding each student’s individual SEND needs, language teachers can open the door to a whole new
world of linguistic and cultural appreciation that could otherwise remain closed.
Opportunities for students with SEND to engage and achieve in the Modern Foreign Languages classroom exist, such as taking part in role-plays with their peers, based on a café or restaurant scenario. Evidence suggests that these types of interactions may facilitate the social skills of students with SEND, especially for students with ASD (Garrote et al., 2017, as cited in Cullen et al., 2020).
Multi-sensory teaching methods including songs, visual aids and team games to help students with SEND remember adjectival agreement rules or retain high-frequency vocabulary, can be used to achieve more inclusive, quality first teaching within the languages classroom. However, experience has brought into sharp focus that no two children with SEND are the same and that what works for one student with ADHD, may not for another. Adapting teaching strategies to suit the needs of the individual with SEND is vital to securing progress, especially if we are to close the attainment gap.
Research carried out by the Education Endowment Foundation (2021) reports that the gap between students with SEND and their peers is double that of students eligible for free school meals and their peers. This highlights the importance of positive dialogue with home to keep parents/carers of students with SEND informed of progress made in MFL. Making phone calls home, awarding ‘MFL Star of the Week’ or ‘Language Leader of the Week’ are practical ways of showing achievement in an inclusive curriculum that is suitably matched to a child’s specific needs. These strategies also raise the profile of a subject perceived to be challenging for students with SEND, encourage positive classroom behaviour and show that these students can meet the high expectations set by you, the teacher.
At my school the languages department uses a range of multi-sensory approaches to enable students to learn vocabulary and find patterns in verb conjugation. The days of the humble card sort are numbered! Now we can select appropriate online quizzes, interactive games and specialist MFL packages to suit every type of learner with SEND. Students with auditory or visual processing difficulties can become fully immersed in learning a language without the need for the teacher to spend hours creating specialist resources from scratch. Understanding the needs of all students with SEND is key to making the right adjustments however, to enable them to fully access the curriculum and realise their full potential, just like any other child in the class.
Author: Roseanna Peate
Roseanna Peate
Roseanna Peate has taught Modern Foreign Languages (Spanish and French) for 14 years and mentored Early Career Teachers. She currently works at Bedford Academy as Lead for Spanish and holds the NASENCO qualification
