A Cross-Departmental Approach to Supporting Students with a Disability Affecting Foreign Language Acquisition

Lys, Franziska; May, Alison; Ravid, Jeanne

doi:10.2478/pjes-2014-0019

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Similarly, Wight () found that, for secondary‐level students, most school districts and private schools set their own policies, formal or informal, for course substitutions and waivers, although a state might adopt specific policies. In their examination of college and university policies regarding the FL requirement, Lys, May, and Ravid () found that most institutions did not assist students classified as LD in choosing the most appropriate FL courses, nor did they focus on providing support for FL study. Rather, most institutions simply reviewed a student's disability documentation, determined eligibility, and decided which courses could be substituted for the required FL courses.…”

Section: Beliefs Policies and Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myths About Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

Sparks¹

2016

Foreign Language Annals

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Conventional wisdom in education has suggested that students who are classified as learning disabled (LD) will exhibit inordinate difficulties learning a foreign language (FL). Even when not explicitly stated, the notion that those classified as LD have a disability for FL learning is implied. However, while beliefs about this purported disability have been supported by anecdotes, personal opinions, and case studies, the beliefs themselves have not been supported by empirical evidence. Advocates of a disability for FL learning have ignored the empirical evidence, which substantiates that there is, in fact, not a special relationship between FL learning and LDs, nor is there a unique disability for FL learning. This article cites several myths about LDs and FLs and examines the evidence that falsifies each of the myths.

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Section: Beliefs Policies and Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myths About Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

Sparks¹

2016

Foreign Language Annals

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show abstract

“…Nonetheless, because some students exhibit difficulty with FL courses, educators have suggested that there is a “disability” for FL learning, or an FL learning disability (e.g., see Difino & Lombardino, 2004; Grigorenko, 2002; Nijakowska, 2010), particularly among students previously classified as learning disabled (LD). In recent years, high schools, colleges, and universities have granted waivers and course substitutions for the FL requirement but only for students classified as LD (Lys, May, & Ravid, 2014; Wight, 2014). However, evidence has shown that there is not a special relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities or a unique “disability” for FL learning.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading “Disability”? Reading Without Meaning and the Simple View

Sparks

Luebbers

2017

J Learn Disabil

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Conventional wisdom suggests that students classified as learning disabled will exhibit difficulties with foreign language (FL) learning, but evidence has not supported a relationship between FL learning problems and learning disabilities. The simple view of reading model posits that reading comprehension is the product of word decoding and language comprehension and that there are good readers and 3 types of poor readers-dyslexic, hyperlexic, and garden variety-who exhibit different profiles of strengths and/or deficits in word decoding and language comprehension. In this study, a random sample of U.S. high school students completing first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses were administered standardized measures of Spanish word decoding and reading comprehension, compared with monolingual Spanish readers from first to eleventh grades, and classified into reader types according to the simple view of reading. The majority of students fit the hyperlexic profile, and no participants fit the good reader profile until they were compared with first- and second-grade monolingual Spanish readers. Findings call into question the practice of diagnosing an FL "disability" before a student engages in FL study.

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Disability does not negatively impact linguistic visual-spatial processing for hearing adult learners of a signed language

Joyce,

Quinto-Pozos,

Singleton

et al. 2023

Front. Commun.

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The majority of adult learners of a signed language are hearing and have little to no experience with a signed language. Thus, they must simultaneously learn a specific language and how to communicate within the visual-gestural modality. Past studies have examined modality-unique drivers of acquisition within first and second signed language learners. In the former group, atypically developing signers have provided a unique axis—namely, disability—for analyzing the intersection of language, modality, and cognition. Here, we extend the question of how cognitive disabilities affect signed language acquisition to a novel audience: hearing, second language (L2) learners of a signed language. We ask whether disability status influences the processing of spatial scenes (perspective taking) and short sentences (phonological contrasts), two aspects of the learning of a signed language. For the methodology, we conducted a secondary, exploratory analysis of a data set including college-level American Sign Language (ASL) students. Participants completed an ASL phonological- discrimination task as well as non-linguistic and linguistic (ASL) versions of a perspective-taking task. Accuracy and response time measures for the tests were compared between a disability group with self-reported diagnoses (e.g., ADHD, learning disability) and a neurotypical group with no self-reported diagnoses. The results revealed that the disability group collectively had lower accuracy compared to the neurotypical group only on the non-linguistic perspective-taking task. Moreover, the group of students who specifically identified as having a learning disability performed worse than students who self-reported using other categories of disabilities affecting cognition. We interpret these findings as demonstrating, crucially, that the signed modality itself does not generally disadvantage disabled and/or neurodiverse learners, even those who may exhibit challenges in visuospatial processing. We recommend that signed language instructors specifically support and monitor students labeled with learning disabilities to ensure development of visual-spatial skills and processing in signed language.

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A Cross-Departmental Approach to Supporting Students with a Disability Affecting Foreign Language Acquisition

Cited by 3 publications

References 24 publications

Myths About Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

Myths About Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities

How Many U.S. High School Students Have a Foreign Language Reading “Disability”? Reading Without Meaning and the Simple View

Disability does not negatively impact linguistic visual-spatial processing for hearing adult learners of a signed language

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