CULTURE-LANGUAGES-MEDIA
Independent Project with Specialization in English Studies and Education
15 Credits, First Cycle
Adapting Teaching Methods and Approaches to Students with ASD
Anpassa undervisningsmetoder och strategier till studenter med ASD
Viktor Ekblom
Master of Arts in Upper Secondary Education, 300 credits English Studies and Education
2021-01-04
Examiner: Henry King
Supervisor: Chrysogonys Siddha Malilang
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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent teachers in Swedish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms need to adapt their teaching methods and strategies to best handle students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). According to Skolverket (2020), a lot of students diagnosed with ASD fail to reach the knowledge requirements for a pass in their English classes in school. The paper presents relevant research retrieved from databases ERIC and EBSCO and discusses the findings in relation to the research questions and the Swedish curriculum. The research presented show students with ASD often struggle with attention, anxiety, and primarily listening comprehension in the classroom. Methods researchers argue counteracts the obstacles for the autistic students aim to reduce anxiety, enhance communication, and complement verbal instructions with visual support.
Key terms: English as a Foreign Language, Autism Spectrum Disorder
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Table of contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Aim and research questions 6
3. Method and description of sources 7
4. Results 9
4.1 Language Acquisition 9
4.2 Teaching Methods and Strategies 12
5. Discussion 17
6. Conclusion 20
References 21
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1. Introduction
As a teacher in Swedish schools today – whether it being at elementary-, secondary-, upper secondary school or even at a University level – one will come across students whose needs differ from the mass. No matter what special needs some students might have, the responsibility to provide the necessary precautions needed to include all students and give them equal opportunity to learn lies with the teacher (Skollag, 2010:800). Even though the Swedish Department of Education state this in the document of School laws (Skollag, 2010:800), Skolverket (2020) argue a lot of students fail to meet the requirements of a pass in the three Swedish core-subjects which includes English. Skolverket (2020) state half of the students diagnosed with some form of Autism Spectrum Disorder (hereafter ASD) fail to reach a pass in these subjects. Given Griswold’s (2002) argument 48 out of every 10 000 children born are diagnosed with ASD, the chance of encountering a student diagnosed in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom at some point in a teaching career is very likely.
The topic of ASD in a school context is both broad and complex, making it a jungle for teachers trying to navigate amongst all students in the classroom. As Gledhill & Currie (2020) explain, the diagnosis and the very nature of its limitations vary from in every person diagnosed. They argue the diagnosis and its symptoms are often graded from mild to severe on a three-graded scale, 3 being the most severe. In some cases, the diagnosis can be so severe that it is impossible for the diagnosed to attend normal school and need to be in a very specific environment. Regarding the milder cases of ASD-students attending our normal schools, teachers need help and research showing them how to best guide and teach these students. Therefore, this paper sets out to research and discuss the difficulties of ASD and what teaching methods could help facilitate language learning for the affected ASD-students.
Padmadewi & Artini (2017) highlight the difficulties people diagnosed with ASD experience in an educational context. They argue those diagnosed with ASD have difficulties in social interactions, reading or understanding other people’s emotions and often rely on strict repetitive behaviours. Padmadewi & Artini (2017) also contend these students have difficulties with reading comprehension, although the diagnosed students sometimes show ability to decode information. These are all difficulties connected to an English teaching classroom. Communicating with others, often once fellow peers, are an integral part of
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learning the English language. Many English lessons also include different forms of reading comprehension which makes it crucial for teachers to adapt and help these students through their difficulties.
There is no reason justifying why students with special needs should be failing in if there is any chance of getting more support from the teachers. Skollagen (2010:800, 2 §) clearly state pupils who, as a result of a disability, have difficulty in meeting the knowledge requirements shall be supported to counteract the consequences of the disability as far as possible (2018:1098). Meaning the studies showing half of the students with ASD fail the core subjects where English is included shows a significant problem in the Swedish educational system.
Since one – as a student – need to have some form of physical disability or a severe developmental disorder to attend special school, this problem is of significance to teachers in every level of ordinary school.
There has not been extensive research done in the very specific area that is English as a second language (ESL) acquisition amongst students with ASD. The research available mostly present reasons to why it is important for students diagnosed to be at least bilingual.
One of studies, Digard et al. (2020) highlight the importance of learning multiple languages for people with ASD. They also argue bilingualism change autistic people’s relations to other and that acquiring a second language enhances their overall social life quality. Since Björkman et al. (2014) argue students with ASD are not a homogeneous group and every diagnosis within the spectrum differs in disabilities, a teacher cannot have one method to handle them all. A teacher needs to understand the disability and be adaptable and creative when teaching the diagnosed student to give them equal opportunity to learn. Because the diagnosis within the Autism Spectrum Disorder vary extensively, research must be done on the complete spectrum for teachers to equip the proper tools to give the special needs students the best education possible.
There is no question, students diagnosed with ASD can learn a second language (L2). Digard et al. (2020) in their study showcase the age of L2 acquisition with people diagnosed with ASD. The ages of the L2 acquisitions varied from the age of 0 up to 46, showing these people are capable of learning L2 from birth but also in a school environment. Digard et al. (2020) with their research prove that any type of argument saying students diagnosed within the ASD are not capable of learning English is unsustainable. The subject matter is therefore
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very much worthy of attention and further research for us to provide all students with equal opportunities in our educational system.
Yusoff et al. (2019) argue teachers instead should, instead of ignoring the special needs the ASD-students require, educate themselves within the subject and find teaching methods or approaches that instead could help facilitate learning within the students in question in a mainstream classroom. They state teaching methods that provide clarity and highlight order such as scaffolding and repeating tasks along with digital tools and a clear lesson plan, ease anxiety and improves the learning possibilities with the ASD-students.
Just as a teacher should not ignore students with ASD or some form of special needs in the classroom, they cannot give them their full attention all the time either. Padmadewi & Artini (2017) claim there are even more teaching approaches and methods than mentioned above, teachers can use to fulfil the diagnosed students’ needs as well as the others. The four approaches Padmadewi & Artini (2017) recommend for handling students with ASD are:
“co-teaching, differentiated instruction, peer-mediated instruction and interventions” (p.
161). They argue by using all the different variations and methods within these four approaches, teachers can help ASD-students be included in mainstream classrooms and learn English alongside their fellow peers.
After all the arguments listed above, for example showing the special needs for students diagnosed with ASD, the Swedish educational system looks in desperate need for more research to be conducted within this area. More research will equal more knowledge about ASD, and teachers will be able to adapt their teaching more adequately to fit each individual.
Setting a goal where all students diagnosed with ASD have the highest grades in English, or even a goal where all students with ASD pass their English at the upper secondary level is unimaginable. Some forms of ASD makes it impossible to learn a language since the person diagnosed can be fully noncommunicative. But striving towards improving the learning conditions for those capable, should be in every educator’s best interest.
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2. Aim and research questions
The aim of my study is to investigate the level of research done on ASD and second language acquisition and to find research that show teaching methods, approaches and strategies efficient to teaching the English language to students with ASD. Since there is limited research available within the specific area of EFL learning and autism were broadened in the research questions to fit a wider field. The research questions were constructed to guide me in the search for sources and in the crafting of this text are:
• What are the teaching methods that have been proven effective to teach students with special needs?
• What are the general adjustments EFL teachers can use in teaching students with special needs?
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3. Method and description of sources
The method I have used to construct this paper is searching for empirical studies and presenting the results I found. Different databases were used to search for appropriate sources to analyse when discussing my research questions. The first database used in the search was EBSCO using the key words: “Second Language Acquisition, ESL, EFL learners and Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD”. This got 23 hits where 1 was deemed relevant to my paper. The one relevant was Padmadewi & Artini (2017).
Since the key words gave me very few hits, the search area was expanded using different phrases. Starting with “teaching methods or teaching strategies or teaching approaches ” combined with “Learning or comprehension” and “Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD or Disabilities”. Different synonyms to the key words were also used to broaden the field even further and find enough sources. Using these phrases and key words more hits were presented and 2 of them (Griswold et al. 2002; Digard, 2020) were interesting and suitable to use in my paper.
Using another database (ERIC) with the same key words, more sources were found and deemd suitable for my paper. 6 sources in total from ERIC were used this paper (Yusoff et al. 2019; Bradley, 2019; Arribas et al. 2020; Gledhill & Currie (2020); Hume et al. (2019); Kurt (2011).
The inclusion criteria for being relevant for my paper consisted of 4 ground rules, put out to follow to the best extent possible. First and foremost, the text had to be an empirical study. The text also had to be recent, meaning published results from the last 10 years. It had to have been peer reviewed and lastly, relevant to an EFL classroom.
Since these were the inclusion criteria, the exclusion criteria meant the sources could not be from before 2010, irrelevant to the EFL classroom or any other genre than empirical studies.
The sources used are all recent (from 2010 and forward) except one. I decided to include Griswold’s et al. (2002) study on autism and academic achievement since all the other sources I found were very recent and I found Griswold’s et al. study very interesting.
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Database Search phrases/ Key
Words
Sources used: 9
ERIC ASD, Autism Spectrum
Disorder, EFL, Language Acquisition, Teaching methods, Approaches, Strategies, EFL learners, Learning, Comprehension.
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EBSCO ASD, Autism Spectrum
Disorder, EFL, Language Acquisition, Teaching methods, Approaches, Strategies, EFL learners, Learning, Comprehension.
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4. Results
As stated in the introduction, the research questions in this paper are aimed to find to what teaching methods, approaches or strategies are proven to be successful in a classroom environment. And also, research what general adjustments teachers can use in an EFL classroom to facilitate learning for students with ASD.
In the results and discussion part of my paper, the results of the empirical studies will be presented and analysed in relation to my research questions. First, the studies investigating and researching mainly language acquisition and why it is beneficial for students with special needs to be bilingual will be presented and discussed in order to give “back bone” and purpose for the rest of the paper. Second, the studies focusing mainly on different teaching strategies, methods and approaches will treated the same way. Lastly, there will be a discussion connecting the different themed results to the research questions presented.
4.1 Language Acquisition
After Digard et al. (2020) proved it possible for students diagnosed with ASD to acquire a second language not spoken in their household, my research questions have been justified.
Below, studies discussing language acquisition and ASD-students difficulties – and or strengths – will be presented before diving into the area of teaching methods and strategies.
In the later discussion section of the paper, the results presented in this section will be connected to the research questions and the context that is Swedish EFL classrooms.
One of the studies discussing and researching the difficulties and importance of language acquisition for people with ASD is Digard et al. (2020). The aim with their study is to investigate the correlation between language learning and social experiences with people diagnosed with ASD from both English- and other speaking countries outside of Europe. In their study, only 98 participants (ca 33%) of their 297 autistic adults reported to knowing 2 languages. Digard et al. (2020) argue the L2 acquisition of those 98 participants varied in both age of acquisition and self-rate of language proficiency. The age of L2 acquisition presented by Digard et al. (2020) varied between age 0 to 46 years and 23,5% of the participants reported being between the ages of 11 and 17 years when learning their second language. This means, 23,5% of the participants have either acquired or at least been exposed to their L2 in a school environment.
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It is reasonable to speculate why only one third of the adults with ASD reported knowing more than one language and 23,5% of the third were in the age where they could have learned the L2 in a school environment. This could mean the diagnosis is the obstacle, making it impossible to help the remaining two thirds learning a second language. Or the reason is simply the participants educational opportunities are not up to par.
One reason why Digard et al. (2020) argue learning a second language is important for people with ASD is the increase of social-life quality. Their results from the self-rating social-life quality scale, where the participants rated their own experience of their social life quality, showed a higher self-rating from bilingual participants compared to monolingual. The results shows that autistic people with proficiency in two or more languages, rate their social-lives higher than those proficient in only one language. It should be the responsibility of educators in schools to give the diagnosed students the best chances of a fulfilling life. To give them the opportunity of for example further education that could lead to a job and give them a chance to take part in society and contribute. Seeing the correlation between life quality and language proficiency should be enough to encourage more research done to enhance language acquisition in ASD-students.
Somewhat different from Digard’s et al. (2020) study that was directed mainly on measuring language acquisition and life quality, Griswold et al. (2002) take interest in the academic achievements and ability in students with ASD. In their study they set out to measure the academic achievement, problem solving and critical thinking traits in students with ASD from the United States and discuss the difficulties of creating educational plans and strategies for the students. Griswold et al. (2002) show the results vary extensively, ranging from both high above average to way below. They state the ASD students showed some of the lowest results, were in the listening comprehension. They argue the low results correlates to ASD- students difficulties in organizing their thoughts and having a short attention span. This could be one factor to why some ASD students struggle with language acquisition since listening comprehension is often a very big part of language lessons in school.
When discussing listening comprehension and the struggles of students with ASD, Bradley (2015) highlights her first-hand experience of the matter in her paper about following a high functioning ASD-student in a University setting in Costa Rica. She also argues, even though teachers are faced with the challenge of teaching language to students with ASD from pre-
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school to university, they are often not equipped with the knowledge necessary to help them learn a foreign language. Therefore, Bradley (2015) in her study, aims to provide insight into language acquisition research and integrating ASD-students into mainstream classrooms. She follows a student diagnosed with ASD in a university setting to study his English language development.
She also explains how the student in her study excelled in his other subjects, such as microbiology, at the university. But how the social factor in the English class proved to be an obstacle for him. Bradley (2015) argues, similarly to Griswold’s et al. (2002) argument, that the auditive aspects of the language development were problematic for the ASD-student.
The communication with the fellow students were also difficult for the diagnosed student and Bradley (2015) argues special adaptations had to be made for him to succeed.
Another study interested in the language acquisition in people diagnosed with ASD is Yosuff’s et al. (2019). Their study revolves around following an eight-year-old Malay girl diagnosed with ASD who decided to acquire English as her first language. Their study aimed to follow and investigate the child’s language performance and development over a period of 12 months. They focused mainly on analysing the morphology and syntax of the child’s past tense structure in her language.
Yosuff et al. (2019) state, like some of the studies above, the main problem causing children with an ASD diagnosis difficulties in acquiring a language is the lack of continuous attention or focus and the ability to organize their thoughts. They maintain children with ASD are less likely to grasp the “bigger picture” and instead focus mainly on details. Since their central coherence often is less effective than children without the diagnosis, this causes problems in language acquisition.
During the year where the child was studied, Yosuff et al. (2019) provide results showing the child with ASD performed very well on English tests and showed good grammatical ability.
Yosuff et al. (2019) contend grammatical processing is relatively unharmed in most ASD diagnosis and the results on their test-person strengthened their arguments. The child produced elaborated noun phrases, adverbs, mental linguistic verbs and conjunction efficiently. Where the child struggled, Yosuff et al. (2019) state was in the communicative aspect of the classroom.
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From the studies presented above, two main themes stand out as interesting and important when discussing language acquisition and ASD. Although most ASD diagnoses are connected to weaker cognitive ability and attention span, it is very possible for ASD-people to acquire a second language. The studies above show how some are even outscoring people without ASD in some tests and the problem does not seem to be syntax or morphology related. The second theme is the difficulties with attention and the communicative aspect of being in a classroom and learning a language. Moving on, theories and studies discussing how to deal with these difficulties will be presented and discussed.
4.2 Teaching Methods and Strategies
As presented by various studies above, learning a second language is far from impossible for students diagnosed with ASD. The focus of my paper now shifts to presenting research discussing teaching methods, approaches and strategies to best handle the students and give them the support they need. The difficulties of language acquisition with ASD-students have been presented above, the question now is how teachers can adjust include them and give them equal opportunity to learn.
The first study to research teaching strategies and methods to better suit students with ASD is Kurt (2011). He compares different Discrete Trial Teaching teachings (DTT) and their effectiveness on teaching receptive language skills to children with ASD. Kurt (2011) explains DTT as the method most used in language teaching to ASD-students and it involves separating skills into steps, each step being taught by repetitive trials. Kurt (2011) then highlights the different results on the acquisition of receptive skills in two autistic male students at the Anadolu University Research Institute in Turkey aged 5 and 12, when comparing the results of two different DTT tests. In the first DTT test, teachers only gave verbal instructions to the students with ASD. In the second, the verbal instructions were complemented with gestures and signs from the teachers.
Kurt (2011) argues the Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) method consisting of verbal instructions complemented with gestures and signs, showed greater results in improving the autistic students’ receptive language skills. Both students had a correct response rate with an average of 96,6% in the combined DTT, whilst only having a correct response rate of 46,6%
when only given verbal instructions. Showing how something as “easy” as complementing
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one’s verbal instructions, that takes little effort from the teacher, can have such a big impact on the students with ASD and their learning opportunities.
Similar to Kurt (2011), Arribas et al. (2020) research various teaching methods, strategies and resources to help facilitate learning for students with special needs in Spain (including students with ASD). Arribas et al. (2020) analyse the strategies that aim to facilitate foreign language acquisition. Arribas et al. (2020) present a European project they call the “EN- ABILITIES”. They argue the project aims at enabling inclusive education through technology to help facilitate language learning for special-needs students in both formal and non-formal environments.
The EN-ABILITIES program, Arribas et al. (2020) content uses strategies such as virtual learning resources, such as visual support like pictures to complement auditive instructions, to support learners with disabilities and is individually adaptable and personalised to each learner. The program, or platform, consists of a multi-tiered online course with up to 80 different grammar, listening and vocabulary exercises where the students can enhance their language skills. Given the problems ASD-students often experience is connected to a lack of visual support along with auditive, this program offers support for those problems.
Every different exercise Arribas et al. (2020) state is complemented with multimodal features such as texts, audio and videos in order to be accessible to every student who wants to learn.
The platform is also free to use for all students who need to, which Arribas et al. (2020) argue facilitates social inclusion. They summarize the platform as a place where students with special needs can seek enjoyment and participation in society and feel included whilst enhancing their language skills and abilities. In conclusion, the platform can serve as a huge helping tool for teachers in normal EFL-classrooms with students who have special needs such as ASD.
As presented earlier in the paper, one of the biggest obstacles that stands in the way of ASD- students language learning is the social interaction and the anxiety and exclusion it can bring the students. Different to Arribas et al. (2020), Gledhill & Currie (2020) set out to explore teachers’ perspective on the use of social support for ASD-students in a qualitative case- study in Sydney Australia. Their aim is to direct teachers, schools, and universities towards the use of positive pedagogies and approaches to inclusive education. Gledhill & Currie
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(2020) call for teachers to practice their best social support to facilitate the growth and adapt to the needs of students with ASD.
In their findings, Gledhill & Currie (2020) present practical classroom strategies teachers can use to facilitate support for students with ASD. The first of the five themes of classroom strategies Gledhill & Currie (2020) argue facilitates social support and learning is “routine”.
They state routine helps the ASD-students understand what is expected from them and with clear structure and routine, there is less chance of arguments and conflicts arising. Routine, Gledhill & Currie (2020) content, also helps build a safe environment for the students where they feel comfortable and less anxious.
Developmental play is the next strategy presented by Gledhill & Currie (2020). They present developmental play as useful classroom strategy their participants in their study recommended. Gledhill & Currie (2020) argue through playing, the students with ASD can communicate and interact with others without necessarily using words. They argue playing can be used in the classroom to help the students with ASD reduce their anxiety and simultaneously practice their communicative and interactive skills.
The third strategy presented is “Explicit Teaching of Emotional Awareness and Body Language”. This Gledhill & Currie (2020) explain is a strategy where teachers explicitly teach ASD-students about their emotions and body-language. Gledhill & Currie (2020) argue the ASD-students improve their interaction skills with others when learning how to read social cues and other people’s body-language. This they argued is along the line of modern literature, arguing the importance of students with ASD learning about emotions and how to read body-language with others. This Gledhill & Currie (2020) state can be practised by teachers asking the students questions such as: “Why do you think I felt that way?” Thus, challenging the students to develop their interaction and body-language-reading skills.
Another study that is similar to Gledhill & Currie (2020), researching the social aspects of students with ASD is Hume et al. (2019). They argue, like Gledhill & Currie (2020), that developing their social interaction skills is crucial for students with ASD. Hume et al.’s (2019) study takes place in preschool settings in Florida, Colorado and Minnesota and aims to research the patterns of positive and negative social interactions amongst children with ASD and the contextual characteristics of classrooms that are associated with those peer-related
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social interactions. The study was conducted in a preschool which functions under the
“LEAP-model” which Hume et al. (2020) explain is a comprehensive treatment model specifically designed for preschoolers with ASD. The model for instance contains individualized learning programs and other supporting methods for both ASD-students, their parents, and their fellow pupils.
Hume et al. (2020) found the level of interaction between the ASD-students and their fellow pupils (with no diagnosis) to be very low. However, social interactions between ASD- students and their fellow peers Hume et al. (2019) argue were twice as likely to take place when no adults were involved. They state that when adults are present and engaging with students, the interaction is more likely to take place between student and adult rather than between the students. The students were also more likely to interact when divided into smaller groups. Hume et al. therefore argue it could be suggested that a classroom strategy promoting peer-mediated interventions in smaller groups rather than adult-mediated could be in favour for students with ASD. Increasing the chances of interacting with their fellow pupils and therefore improving their social skills.
The last source examined in this paper regarding teaching methods, classroom strategies, approaches etc. is Padmadewi & Artini (2017). Their case study takes place in Indonesia where they research a 10-year-old boy diagnosed with ASD in a regular third grade classroom.
Their aim with their study is similar to those presented above as it aims to research teaching methods and approaches to help facilitate learning in students with ASD, in this case English as a foreign language. The ASD-student in Padmadewi & Artini’s (2017) study is low functioning socially and has to have a “shadow-teacher” (personal teacher) by his side at all times, providing necessary support when needed.
Padmadewi & Artini (2017) found, when analysing their data collected through observation and interviews, different methods that proved successful when teaching English to the student with ASD. For example, they argue similarly to Arribas et al. (2020) that ASD- students tend to be “visual learners” meaning they cope better with tasks and when auditive instructions are complemented with visual support. Their participating ASD-student showed greater performance levels and enthusiasm when given visual support by his shadow-teacher when assigned tasks in the classroom. One example where visual media was used as a teaching method to bring clarity to the ASD-student was when the teacher was naming
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colours in English, the shadow-teacher showed the ASD-student a piece of paper in said colour to give clarity and visual support.
The shadow-teacher Padmadewi & Artini (2017) highlight is an asset to the teacher in the classroom, since the shadow-teacher can function as a “second teacher” to the whole class, but mainly the teacher is an asset to the ASD-student. This particular aspect of the source differs from all others since it is the only paper where the researched ASD-student has had the support of his own shadow-teacher. This gave the student different opportunities to learn both in and outside the classroom and helped him feel included in his class.
One method used where the shadow-teacher is vital is the ‘pull-out’ method. Padmadewi &
Artini (2017) explain how based on the students need or even as a planned strategy, the shadow-teacher would leave the mainstream classroom with the ASD-student to a special environment to study therefore removing distractions and giving 100% attention to teaching the ASD-students using the visual methods mentioned above.
Similar to Kurt’s (2011) arguments, Padmadewi & Artini (2017) highlight the successful usage of DTT in the classroom where they observed their participating student. The DTT consisted of verbal instructions, prompting with cards showing images of the task, and giving a reward if the student grasped the task. Padmadewi & Artini (2017) content this method was used in cycles throughout their observation of the autistic boy in the classroom.
The sources in this part of the paper highlights some main themes and some specific teaching methods, approaches, assets, or strategies applicable in a classroom. If teachers were educated or shown these assets and ways of dealing with ASD-students in regular classrooms, the chances of improving the students’ language learning would increase. The sources clearly show there are methods proven to work in helping students with ASD direct their attention and reduce anxiety. The methods, approaches, and strategies therefore not only improving their chances of learning, but they also affect their well-being and quality of life.
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5. Discussion
After highlighting the main characteristics of autistic students’ language acquisition, showing strengths and weaknesses, presenting research on approaches, methods and strategies used to best handle students with ASD it is important to show the sources relevancy by connecting them to my research questions as well as the context that is the Swedish EFL classrooms and the Swedish steering documents.
In the Language Acquisition part, the main objective was to give ‘backbone’ to the relevancy of my paper. In order to discuss ways of improving students with ASD’s chances of learning a second language, it needed to be clear that learning a second language is possible for diagnosed students. Although, most researchers agreed the ASD-spectrum is a broad spectrum and extremely specific to the individual affected. Some cases of ASD where the grading of the diagnosis is severe, the chances of learning any language are vastly decreased.
The sources used proved it possible for the more highly functioning students with ASD to learn a second language whilst also presenting some of the main obstacles and difficulties.
Skolverket (2014) clearly state the teacher’s duty of both identifying and adapting to the special needs of their students who are at risk of not reaching the requirements. Since Digard et al. (2020) showed it is possible for ASD-students of all ages to acquire a second language, although acknowledging the fact that the diagnosis hinders some, the fact that teachers in the Swedish schools should strive to give every student the right tools to learn the English language.
The sources used showed there are clear patterns in the language acquisition aspect of students diagnosed with ASD. One of the main patterns one can outline from the aspect of learning a language when reading the sources used is the ASD-students’ problems with auditive instructions and listening comprehension (Griswold et al., 2002; Bradley, 2015). The ASD-students according to the research above, often fall short in this area and that could be a big factor to why many Swedish EFL students with autism are failing to reach the requirements for a pass in the subject.
Skolverket (2011) state in the criteria for English 5 in the Swedish upper secondary school that for a passing grade, students can comprehend the main content and distinguish clear
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details from a variety of spoken English. It is clear, this goal could be a big obstacle for many of the Swedish students with autism since they struggle a lot with the auditive and communication aspect of language. If they are not given the proper support proven successful by relevant research, then maybe almost half of the students will continue to struggle with learning English in our schools.
Another theme that stood out, causing issues for the ASD-students in classrooms was the social interaction and communicative aspect of the classroom environment (Bradley, 2015;
Yosuff et al., 2019). As explained earlier, most people diagnosed with autism struggle with anxiety in social situations and have a hard time organising their thoughts and attention span.
When asked to for example communicate with their fellow pupils in English, some student with autism may struggle with the pressure of the task. Since Skolverket (2011) also demand student to be able to adapt their language speaking skills in some way to fit the context and the recipient to pass English 5, it is not difficult to understand why the ASD-students suffer here as well.
This paper was constructed to research how teachers in the Swedish EFL classrooms need to adapt their teaching to best handle students with ASD. After highlighting the main difficulties of ASD-students in language acquisition, the sources researching teaching methods and approaches to best handle was presented to find solutions to the struggles of the ASD-students. Presenting ways for teachers to adapt their teaching methods and strategies will give autistic students better chances of succeeding with their language acquisition.
Regarding the problem of listening comprehension, the research presented in the teaching methods section above argued auditive instructions complemented with visual support improved the ASD-students chances of understanding. Given this takes very little effort from a teacher’s perspective, to give that extra bit of visual support to the autistic student, the method is applicable in a Swedish EFL classroom. This is something every teacher with ASD-students should be aware of and take into consideration when planning their lessons and choosing their teaching styles or methods.
The research also presented solutions or tools to deal with the social anxiety that they contended most students with ASD suffer from. For example, Hume et al. (2020) highlighted
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the fact that teachers sometimes stand in the way of the autistic students’ communication with their fellow pupils. They argued peer-mediated interventions in small groups helped spark communication between the pupils.
The main ‘method’ or strategy that the research highlighted would help decrease the autistic students’ anxiety was to create a safe classroom environment. For instance, using peer- mediated interventions in small groups to let the pupils connect with each other and communicate better. But mainly, creating a structured environment where the autistic students know what is expected of them and in return get what they are expected to get form their teacher. Implementing these strategies in a classroom will contribute to creating a safe environment where students with ASD get the best possible chance to learn a second language.
After highlighting the main struggles students with ASD encounter in classrooms and presenting research that offer solutions to the problems, teachers will need to identify the individual needs of each student with ASD. Research suggests the main struggles revolves listening comprehension, organising their thoughts, and struggles with anxiety. After identifying the needs of their students, there are strategies and methods applicable in the Swedish EFL classroom teachers can use to adapt to these needs and create a safe learning environment for their students which is what every teacher should strive towards in their occupation.
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6. Conclusion
Researchers show bilingualism is uncommon amongst people with ASD although those reporting to have acquired a second language, also rated their average quality of life higher than those monolingual. The main obstacles students with ASD encounter in classrooms are listening comprehension, organising their thoughts, communicating with others, and struggles with anxiety in social situations. To increase ASD-students chances of understanding verbal instructions, teachers can complement the verbal instructions with visual support. To reduce anxiety and risk of altercations with the students, teachers are urged to create a structured classroom where the autistic students are aware on the expectations on them.
The limitations to this study are the fact that there is very little research done within the area.
All sources used in my paper are foreign, meaning conducted outside of Sweden. There was no research relevant to this paper that had been done in a Swedish EFL classroom. The sources used all connect to language acquisition and autism, but none specifically connects to Swedish students with autism learning English as a second language meaning the sources have had to been put in the context of a Swedish EFL classroom. The researchers in the sources used all highlight the fact that autism and language acquisition is a vastly under- researched area and call for more people to engage in the research field.
Based on my findings, more can and should be conducted in a Swedish EFL classroom. A feasible research project I would like to conduct is to investigate teacher’s usage of teaching methods and strategies proven to work when teaching students with ASD. I argue the research idea is achievable since there are a lot of students diagnosed with ASD in Swedish classrooms.
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