Teaching English to Students With Special Needs: A Case Study in Jordan

Abstract

Students with special needs usually encounter difficulties in learning English because of their physical, health, or psychosocial challenges. English Teachers’ attitudes to the students’ special needs play a significant role in facilitating the students’ learning process or hindering their learning of English. When a teacher has a negative attitude to the special needs students, this may lead to the teacher not fully covering the planned English syllabus, thus impeding the educational development process of all students. However, an English teacher’s positive attitudes to their profession can certainly influence their students’ attitudes and desire for learning. This study investigates the attitudes of English teachers of special needs students to their profession in schools in Jordan. A quantitative research method was used to collect data from a randomly chosen sample of 155 English teachers. The results of the study revealed that English teachers’ attitudes to their profession were positive and above average, and there was a difference in their attitudes to their profession in general according to the “experience” variable. However, there were no differences in the teachers’ attitudes to their profession according to the “academic qualification.” The findings can contribute to identifying the most important factors that influence the decision-making of newly appointed teachers whether to enter the profession of teaching English to students with special needs.