ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO

STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN

COLOMBIA
Erika Peraza Espinel
 INTRODUCTION

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CHILDREN WITH TEACHING STRATEGIES CURRICULUM AND

SPECIAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT
 Inclusive Education

Theoretical Nacional and International Policies

Children with Special Needs

Teaching Strategies
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Curriculum and Assessment

Framework
The English Language Classroom
 Inclusive education is responding to the diversity of needs of our
students without excluding them because of their weaknesses in
Inclusive different areas. Stubbs (2008) said: “Inclusive education refers to a wide
Education range of strategies, activities, and processes that seek to make a reality
of the universal right to quality, relevant and appropriate education”
(p.8).

National and
To understand the importance of government structures necessary to
International support inclusive education.
Policies

Colombia now has a National The need for an educational inclusive

Disability and Social Inclusion Policy, system intending to realize this right
adopted in 2013. This document is centered without discrimination and on the
on the CRPD and promotes the social basis of equal opportunity, States
management of risk when addressing Parties shall ensure an inclusive
disability  (Correa & Castro, 2016).   education system at all levels
(Lawson, 2018).
Teachers need to find many of teaching strategies to
ensure that children with special needs achieve
productive learning. Nind & Wearmouth (2006) suggest
that some pedagogical approaches as an adaptation of
curriculum or instructions should be combined with other
types of adaptations such as adaptations in materials,
assessments, classroom environments, etc.
Curriculum and
Assessment
Definitions
Children with special needs are those with
special educational requirements; as
learning difficulties, emotional or
behavioral problems, or physical
disabilities.
The teacher reflection is an important thing that helps
teachers to understand and reflect about their pedagogical
practices when they work with special educational needs
children, as Brigden (2002) says: “ Reflection itself is a
complex but vital skill which is central both to our capacity
to learn from experience and to apply that learning to our
professional practice” (p.325).
Children
with
Teaching Strategies
Special
Needs
“Special needs” is a term used in clinical
diagnosis and functional development to describe
individuals who require assistance for disabilities
that may be medical, mental, or psychological.
Students who have these special educational
needs require different strategies to learn and to
interact with others in an educational environment
(as cited in Montaño & Vera, 2012, p.377).
 The English Language Classroom
• There are important elements to create a
successful English classroom which
facilitates students with special needs
their language teaching/learning process.
Montaño & Vera (2012) point out that in order to have an
appropriate classroom environment for inclusion, it is
necessary to follow three basic principles: First, it is
necessary to meet each child at his own level of
development, foster that stage, and enable the child to
move on to the next level; it is fundamental to know
every student´s situations, strengths and weaknesses in
order to respect her/his learning process. Second, it is
important to tailor the environment to each child's
strengths and weaknesses and help all children, with
special needs or not, to build greater competency. Finally,
it is very useful to interact with children in ways that help
them to think and problem-solve at their own levels.
 Conclusions
The adaptations in materials,
curriculum, spaces and interactions are
really crucial when we are going to prepare
a class for children with special needs.
There are many elements, policies,
strategies and curriculums that help teachers
to implement or to be creative using these
things in their classrooms to ensure children
with special needs have a successful learning
process during their scholarship.
Matthews (2009) argues that a
possible solution to avoid invisible
children in our classrooms could be
raising education teachers‟ and
their students‟ awareness of the
key ideas of the disabled peoples‟
movement, such as the social
model of disability, may present
new routes towards more inclusive
education (p. 16).