Teaching English Learners with Special Educational Needs. A diagnostic guide for new ESL teachers

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Didactics - English - Pedagogy, Literature Studies, Charles Darwin University, language: English, abstract: Perhaps you have just completed your TESOL or DELTA course and living your dream, teaching English in Japan, China or Kuwait. However, there is an increasingly common scenario where, according to Cloud, mainstream teachers, inclusive educators, or special education practitioners place a phone call or email to an ESL specialist wanting to know quickly how to teach ESL or when the situation is reversed and an ESL teacher contacts a special education unit when they are challenged by a student having difficulties learning. This is a scenario that as classroom populations are becoming increasingly diverse, including but not limited to first language speakers, English as Second Language learners and those with special educational needs. According to Nancy Cloud, 'There is a paucity of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language programs which provide crossover training in special education or special education programs that encourage specialization in TESOL.' While, it is human nature to hope that simply asking how to solve a specific problem will result in a specific answer applicable to all students in all situations, fifteen percent of the global population according to the World-Health Organization and the World Bank, identified in its 2011 joint report as having a disability.