1. Alex Kozulin & Haya Razam
Attitudes of English (EFL) teachers toward inclusion of students with learning disabilities (LD)
Alex Kozulin & Haya Razam
Paper presented at 5th All European Dyslexia Conference, Modena, Italy Sept , 2016

2. Purpose
Relatively little is known about specific difficulties experienced by students with LD in English-as-a-foreign language (EFL) classrooms.
The purpose of our study was to explore the attitudes of EFL teachers toward inclusion of students with LD into regular EFL classrooms.
To the best of our knowledge this is the first study of this nature in Israel.

3. Educational Context
In Israel English is a compulsory subject of study from the 4th grade (9-10 year old children);
Passing English matriculation exam is one of the requirements for the admission to Israeli universities and other institutions of higher-education.
As a result EFL proficiency plays a gate-keeper role in respect to Israeli higher education.

4. Policy of inclusion
According to the circular letter of the Israeli Ministry of Education (2008):
“Students with disabilities who are included in a regular class are to receive the same number of hours of English instruction as their classmates. If necessary, the possibility of allotting additional hours of intervention for English for these students should be considered” (p. 12).
 “Students with LD should be expected to meet the standards of the English Curriculum. (p.14)
“It is strongly recommended that English teachers of students with LD, whether in an integrated or a separate class, receive appropriate training in order to be qualified to teach this student population. “ (p.14)

5. Methodology
Sample: 70 EFL teachers working in primary and middle schools in Israel, 94% - females; Teaching experience: 67% - more than 6 years; 88% at least once participated in in-service training about LD.
Questionnaire: one open ended question about LD, one dichotomous question about inclusion/separate teaching, and 8 Likert scale questions.

6. Should students with LD be exempt from EFL study?
Majority of EFL teachers (75%) did not agree with the idea of exempting students with LD from EFL lessons.

7. Should students with LD learn EFL in mainstream classes?
Only 57% recommended that students with LD learn English in mainstream classes.

8. EFL teacher or Special Ed. teacher?
EFL teachers are not sure in their ability to work with children with LD.
Majority of them agree, at least in part, with the statement that
“The academic functioning of students with learning disabilities in EFL must be entrusted to special education teachers and not to an English teacher.”

9. Additional results
There is no consensus regarding the statement that it is more difficult to teach EFL to students with LD than other disciplines. 35% agree, 39% disagree, 26% partially agree.
60% of the EFL teachers support the notion that students with LD should have more hours of English;
84% support special in-service training about LD for EFL teachers.

10. Conclusions
The majority of teachers in our sample supported the idea of EFL remaining a required subject for students with LD;
About half the of the teachers advocate separate EFL lessons for students with LD, while the other half support inclusion;
EFL teachers would like to see greater involvement of special education teachers in EFL teaching of students with LD.

11. Alex Kozulin Achva College Alex_k@achva.ac.il
Contact information
Alex Kozulin Achva College