Abstract

Current research demonstrates, language is the way where people with different

nationalities can come into contact by speaking in any other language apart from their

first or native language. In general, teachers focus on how to teach their knowledge to

children by taking into account a variety of theories, teaching methods and some

factors that may play a significant role to second language acquisition. However, there

are children who are not able to learn a foreign language due to the fact that they are

diagnosed many with learning disorders. This study is undertaken to recommend on

how children with learning disorders can have an excellence in mastering in second

language acquisition by implementing the Response to Intervention (RTI) approach.

Keywords-: Second Language Acquisition, Language Acquisition Theories, Factors

of Second Language Acquisition, Learning Disorders, Response To

Intervention(RTI),Excellence of Second Language Acquisition to Children with

Learning Disorders

According to Sapir and Whorf (1929) ,language itself can influence in how

speakers perceive the world around them .Nowadays, this notion can be verified
because people do not only learn a new language to broaden their horizons but also

with the aim to communicate efficiently with others despite their gender, origin,

beliefs or social status. Second language acquisition, can be a different experience for

each learner depending on the circumstances that have to do with the spoken language

in the community in which they live. SLA experts, have decided to put much more

effort and help learners have an interest in learning a new language by focusing on the

following theories : Behaviorism, which is the process of habit formation as a result

of repetition, Contrastive analysis hypothesis (CAH) which is used in predicting

pronunciation problems, and, Interaction Hypothesis Development ,which can be

facilitated when learners attempt to come into contact with other speakers of their

non-native language to resolve their problems (Çakıroğlu ,2018).

The question of “How is language acquired?” has led researchers to conduct

research on how linguistic approaches can contribute to the acquisition of another

language by the use of some methodologies .Experts tried to insert in their teaching

processes a set of teaching methods, that enhance the process of developing ability in

another language, following the acquisition of first language .One of the teaching

methods is Community Language Learning which focuses on the social interaction

between the people that live in the same society and therefore come into contact.

Another method, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) focuses on basic skills

such as grammar, writing, speaking and vocabulary whereas could easily facilitate

language development. Furthermore Second Language Acquisition includes some

teaching methods that can help students to become better in the learning process such

as : grammar translation which has to do with the explanation of grammar and thus

the translation of sentences to young learners, natural approach which gives emphasis

to a meaningful communication within a non-threatening classroom environment,

silent way where teacher speaks when it is necessary and encourages students to

figure out the rules of the language by themselves .Last but not least audio-lingual

method states that grammar should be taught inductively with little or no explicit

grammar explanation from educators to students so as to correct spoken

language(Vygotsky , 1978).

However, individual differences play a significant impact on the acquisition of

a foreign language because it affects the way on how teachers will transfer their

knowledge to them. One of those ways is the first language, that a speaker learns it

naturally from the society that they live on .This can influence the way learners will

transfer or even misinterpret elements from one language to another and vice versa

.Age, is another factor which affects language acquisition as biologically, there is a

specific window for learners where they (Period Hypothesis) more easily learn a

foreign language .Gender issue suggests that females tend to use more language

learning strategies than males while males tend to talk more, dominate the

conversation including indicate non-understanding more often than females. In

addition, working memory, affects the role of second language acquisition through

vocabulary, grammar rules, reading ability with listening proficiency, proven

evidence that may help predict differences in the rate of second language learning.

Motivation is for those students who are willing to devote more time, energy to

achieve fluency in the target language, are being described as more successful.

Taking the above into consideration, many people can infer that children with

learning disabilities can learn a second language the same way other children do.

However, before discussing this further , it is important to mention some important

things that have to do with Learning Disabilities. The term Learning Disabilities,

refers to a number of disorders, which may affect the acquisition, organization,

retention, understanding, or use of verbal or nonverbal information that have to do

with a broad range of functional skills that include the speaking, writing, listening,

spelling etc. activities . Also, experts through their research ended up to the

conclusion that the hereditary, environmental along with medical factors have the

highest influence on causing numerous disabilities. The most common of them are

dyslexia the reading type, dysgraphia the type that is about written legibility,

dyscalculia the math disorder, while less common types of disabilities are the

auditory, visual and non-verbal ones (Stone et al., 2014).

Everything that was mentioned up to this point, it is very important in order to

understand the essence of learning disabilities that can be found in children who want

to be competent in learning a second language such as the English language. Even

more so, in a conducted research experiment that took place in a Secondary school

with fifteen native middle Chinese pupils, from 12 up to 15 years old, who were

diagnosed with different types of learning disabilities. In those children, Response to

Intervention (RTI) was implemented because experts wanted to help students who are

struggling with English language courses. The basic aim of RTI was to help them to

become masters of the English language. As a consequence, the reason of choosing it

was not only to pinpoint learning disabilities but also behavior problems in children

through the use of different instructional methods and tiers of research-made

interventions. At the beginning of the experiment (Tier 1) the purpose was to perceive

how the whole class can answer to the provided questions of an English reading text

comprehension, that would show who is succeeding and who is not. Next, which is

second intervention (Tier 2), here the targeted group is a small group of ten (10)

students who did not perform well at previous intervention. What teachers have to do

here is to be more direct in how students can learn some things that have to do with
learning process, through the use of unconstructive feedback. Last but not least, the

third, instructional method (Tier 3) includes intensive interventions for seven (7)

students whose performance continues to be under the average through the aid of a

special education teacher. The results of this experiment were very good given that

almost the majority of students, thirteen out of fifteen (13 out of 15) pupils, had an

excellence in second language acquisition in English language despite their learning

disabilities. In addition, experts found out that children with learning disabilities are

very charismatic, deserve be equally accepted as the other children even though their

brains process information in a different way (Orosco & Klingner, 2010).

To conclude, it can be inferred that RTI is the appropriate method that can

help a lot of young students who are having troubles with second language

acquisition. This can happen, only if their parents in conjunction with their teachers

can help them to use this approach by knowing their strengths as well as their

weaknesses.

References
Çakıroğlu A. (2018). The Language Acquisition Approaches and the Development of

Literacy Skills in Children, International Electronic Journal of Elementary

Education, 11 (2), 1-6. doi: 10.26822/iejee.2019248600

Orosco, J. & Klingner J. (2010). One School’s Implementation of RTI with English

Language Learners: “Referring Into RTI”, 43 (3), 269-288.doi:

0.1177/0022219409355474

Vygotsky, L. (1978). Interaction between learning and development. Readings on the

development of children, 23(3), 34-41.

Stone, C. A. et al. (Eds.) (2014). Handbook of Language and Literacy: Development

nd
and Disorders (2 Edition). New York: The Guilford Press.