Development of linguistically responsive methodology for pupils with special needs on II stage of basic education speakingEstonian as the second language

In the second stage of basic education in Estonia, where the transition from a classroom to a subject-based system is taking place, teachers often find themselves in a difficult situation: in addition to the fact that the subject language itself can be difficult for the pupils, there are often children in the class whose first language is not the language of instruction, i.e. Estonian; in addition, there are also children with special needs in almost every class who speak other languages than Estonian and who need extra attention, adapted teaching and learning materials from the teacher. However, subject teachers with different professional qualifications often lack the knowledge, skills and tools for helping these pupils. Nor do students in teacher education programmes gain the necessary knowledge, skills and practice in how to teach children with special needs who speak Estonian as the second language. There is also a lack of guidance to help teachers. The project will produce materials to fill this gap. The materials will consist of guidelines for teaching children with special needs speaking Estonian as the second language and sample training materials. In addition, the materials can be used as a basis for a further training curriculum to support teachers of children with special needs speaking Estonian as the second language in the future. The materials are intended primarily for teachers, but also for support professionals and learning resource developers, to help them adapt teaching processes and materials to these pupils, taking into account the principles of language-sensitive teaching and the specificities of HEV children. More generally, the materials will support the acquisition of knowledge and skills in teacher training in universities and will also provide support for practising teachers.