Karen Wang
Why Foreign Language Study is a Great Idea For Students with Special Needs
“Are you sure you want to enroll him in World Languages? I understand the course has a strong academic focus.”
A special education teacher said this to me while we were planning for my son’s transition from elementary school to middle school. The teacher’s concern was that adding new languages would be confusing to my son, who already struggles with his first language, English. There was no question that it would be difficult for him, but difficulty is not a legitimate reason for avoidance.
I had given considerable thought to this decision, based on my past experience as a teacher of Latin and ancient Greek, and I had come to the conclusion that foreign languages could become a source of strength for my son. I came up with five reasons why foreign languages are a great idea for students with learning disabilities and delays in speech and language.
1. Family history
Language is one way to learn about and participate in family history and culture. With this in mind, the Friendship Circle offers Efshar Circle, an individualized Hebrew and Judaic curriculum for students with disabilities.
Some families are bilingual, and some families choose to explore a language together as part of their family identity.When I teach my children Latin at home, the lessons are intermingled with stories of archaeology, geography and mythology that are a part of my personal history.
2. A new world view
Sometimes in special education, teachers become so good at breaking down ideas and simplifying lessons that they forget to teach about other cultures, other ways of doing and speaking. Foreign languages automatically unlock the door to the rest of the world.
When my son was doing a unit on German, I began saying everything to him twice, once in English, once in German. He was amazed to learn that different words could mean the same thing. He was also amazed to learn that I had once been an exchange student to Germany, that I had visited real castles and taken trains to different cities there. As a result, he started checking out books from the library about geography, castles and the medieval era.
3. Slow down
For those with language delays, it is advantageous to start over the language learning process from scratch and slowly move forward. Avoiding language study puts these students at a major disadvantage.
In a beginning foreign language class, every word is analyzed. I taught my Latin students to break down words to identify the stem, prefix, suffix and infix, and we discussed the meaning of each of those parts (linguists call those parts “morphemes”).
With my Greek students, we had to practice and re-practice a new alphabet at every lesson, so I had my students slow down and enunciate each word one syllable at a time. My lessons emphasized phonics and syntax, which is exactly where many students with language delays or dyslexia need the most help. And everyone got plenty of help in my classes. In other words, starting a new language means that the playing field is leveled for every student.
4. Reinforcement of native language
Foreign language classes can strengthen students’ knowledge and expertise in their native language. My Latin students used to tell me, “I feel like I’m learning more about the English language in Latin class than I ever learned in English class.” When we talked about subjects, verbs and direct objects in class, we used examples from both English and Latin, and compared them.
My son has always had great difficulty with gendered pronouns and 1st-2nd person pronoun reversal in English. Over the years his speech therapists have put pronoun goals on his IEP several times and tried various methods to teach him about pronouns.But the big breakthrough came when he brought home his German homework. He had to read, understand and answer questions using pronouns. He had to identify the gender of the speaker in dialogs before writing a response. He had to decide if the pronoun was a subject or direct object, and choose the correct form. Going back and forth between English and German, he had to develop a new cognitive process.
5. Build upon strengths
Some languages are ideal for people who excel at decoding. The main focus of these foreign language classes is on linguistic analysis. To some it sounds boring, but in fact this was my main attraction to Latin, ancient Greek and German as a child. Because of his hyperlexia, I knew that my son would also be attracted to the decoding aspect of foreign languages. His foreign language class builds upon his cognitive strengths in a social context.
Other language classes tend to focus on conversational and social skills, especially Spanish, French and Italian. For those who thrive in a social environment, this type of language class provides a sense of competence while introducing challenging concepts in phonemic awareness and syntax. It is worthwhile to try different languages and different types of classes to find one that is comfortable.
In the end, my son earned an A+ as his final grade in World Languages. Most of the course content involved word studies and cultural context, which required the type of decoding skills that delight him. He was allowed extra time to take quizzes, but he completed all the assignments on time and the curriculum was not modified for him. I guess he needed that strong academic focus after all.
