Accommodating Students with Disabilities Studying English as a Foreign Language (Practice Brief)

Abstract

Students with disabilities (SWD) can encounter a number of challenges in foreign language education, a field in which practitioners are too often untrained in special education. Additionally, there are few resources available for postsecondary foreign language program administrators who wish to systematize support for SWD enrolled in their courses. This practice brief describes an eight-stage framework created to accommodate SWD enrolled in mandatory English as a foreign language course at a university in Japan. This framework includes initial referral and class placement, the creation of multidisciplinary teams, specific interventions, and review. Ongoing collaboration and teacher training supplement this framework and its implementation. Grade and attendance rate analysis pre- and post-implementation suggests that this framework helps ensure SWD in the present context can meet course objectives. Implications and portability of this framework are also discussed.