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A Foreign Language Learner with Down Syndrome

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Introduction
n Melanie is the first student with Down syndrome (DS) to attend your mainstream secondary school. She has accompanied her parents on continental holidays and they want their daughter to have an opportunity to learn MFL. She is also keen to have a go in spite of her learning difficulties.

Problem 1
n What advice is given to MFL teachers seeking to include students with DS in their classes?
n Read this American high school teacher's request for help with a 16-year-old boy with DS in her Spanish class, also studying the responses she received. A reposting on the UK Linguanet discussion group elicited the following public contribution. Read Testimonial: Down Syndrome to find out what happened to Bill Davies when he reached the starting age for learning French. The Down Syndrome Education International and Down's Syndrome Association websites provide background information about educating young people with DS.

Problem 2
n You decide to find out about good practice in teaching MFL to students with DS in the UK.
n Hilary McColl's website is an excellent source of information and advice about the general and particular implications of special educational needs for modern foreign languages. Her Down's syndrome & foreign language learning page features a teacher's case study of a pupil with DS in a Scottish mainstream secondary school. Reva Klein's Times Educational Supplement Guten Tag, everybody article recounts the experience of a boy with DS attending a school for severe learning difficulties, where he learns German, also participating in an international school exchange visit.

Problem 3
n You decide to learn more about teaching MFL to students with DS in other European countries.
n The Allegro Project has case studies about learners of MFL with DS in the central Spanish town of Cuenca. Teaching a foreign language to students with Down syndrome in the context of the Allegro project and Teaching children with Downs Syndrome describe the experience of teaching English and French respectively to these young people.

Further reading
n Allegro Project (2007) Teaching children with Downs Syndrome, http://allegro.acs.si/case_studies/?id=31
n Fabbro, F., Alberti, A., Gagliardi, C., Borgatti, R. (2002). 'Differences in native and foreign language repetition task between subjects with Williams and Down Syndromes', Journal of Neurolinguistics 15, pp.1-10.
n McColl, H. (2006) Inclusion: supporting a pupil with Down's syndrome: a case study S1 French, http://www.languageswithoutlimits.co.uk/resources/Downs.pdf
n McColl, H. (2008) MFL & inclusion: Down's syndrome & foreign language learning, http://www.languageswithoutlimits.co.uk/downs.html
n Pinar Sanz, M. J. (2003) 'Teaching a foreign language to students with Down Syndrome in the context of the Allegro Project', The Webmag October 2003 Issue, http://www.whbs.co.uk/children/choct2003/choct2003/teaching.htm
n Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (2003) 'Challenges to normal foreign language learning: dyslexia, Downs syndrome, deafness', in Tokuhama-Espinosa, T. (ed.) The multilingual mind: questions by, for and about people with many languages, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
n Wilken, Etta (2003) 'Bilingualism in children with Down Syndrome in Germany', Down Syndrome News and Update 2(4), pp. 146-147. Online at http://www.down-syndrome.org/practice/197/practice-197.pdf

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