Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Asperger’s syndrome (AS) – students with special educational needs during English lessons in polish mainstream schools

Abstract

In the first part of the article, the author presents brief description of the most important Regulations of the Polish Minister of National Education in the context of SEN students. Children with special needs, characteristics of selected disorders (Autism and Asperger’s syndrome) and selected guidelines for teachers constitute the next matter under consideration of second part of the article. It is essential to point out that English language teachers have to be aware of their responsibilities they have to students with special educational needs. Even if English language teachers are very good at English grammar, they have a large range of vocabulary, highly developed listening and speaking skills, and are excellent at lesson planning and know a lot of teaching methods; they still can discourage students with special educational needs from learning English language. If they do not acquire specialized knowledge and training related to different kinds of children’s development impairments and disorders, they are not able to understand these children needs and identify students ’ problems in their development and learning process. If they are not able to do so, they will not be ready to organize favorable school circumstances for children with special educational needs at their English lessons.