Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences

This book is intended to help language teachers to work effectively and successfully with students who have Specific Learning Differences (SpLDs). It enables teachers to gain a thorough understanding of the nature of SpLDs and how these affect both general learning processes and the mechanisms of second language acquisition. In addition, the book explores the particular inclusive methods and techniques of teaching and assessment that foster success in language learning. Language teaching is embedded in a wider social and educational context, and therefore the book also provides an in-depth discussion of general educational issues related to identifying and disclosing disabilities and to making transitions from one institution to the other.

The content has been thoroughly updated and revised for the second edition, particularly in the areas of inclusive pedagogies, new evidence-based methods and tools for identifying SpLDs, and new conceptualisations of neurodiversity. The book also includes the latest research on assessment, transition and progression, and the impact of SpLDs on additional language learning.

About the Authors

Judit Kormos is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, UK. She is the author of The Second Language Acquisition Process of Students with Specific Learning Difficulties (Routledge, 2017). She was a key partner in the ELTon award-winning DysTEFL and Comics for Inclusive Language Learning Erasmus+ projects and is the lead educator of the Dyslexia and Foreign Language Teaching massive open online learning course offered by Future Learn.

Anne Margaret Smith is a specialist tutor and assessor for students with SpLDs. She is the editor of Activities for Inclusive Language Teaching: Valuing Diversity in the ELT Classroom (Delta Publishing, 2020). Her company ELT Well offers advice and training for teachers and assessors who want to explore the overlap between language learning and SpLDs.