Adults with Autism in EFL.

To return to the question, then, about what we can do to make TEFL more inclusive for adults with autism, the best answer may in fact be the simplest: ask your learners. That’s not to say you should ask them if they identify as autistic or go about trying to identify autistic traits in them yourself. Some people may not feel comfortable disclosing their diagnosis, or may not even be aware that they are autistic, as already mentioned. Instead, we should first and foremost make any learners with traits associated with autism feel accepted and try to foster a supportive culture of acceptance among all learners in the classroom.

For those who do disclose a diagnosis, it’s important to ask them directly if there are any adaptations that could help. In a sense, the best teachers of EFL make appropriate adjustments already, without the need to identify or name conditions such as autism. Individual needs analysis is central to English language learning success and no two learners have the same profile. Tailoring to individual needs should therefore be part and parcel of any EFL programme.

But with growing awareness about autism, it may be that we need to go a step further and re-consider or broaden our notions of what is acceptable in terms of things like speech patterns, communication styles or non-verbal forms of expression. At the same time, it may be necessary to explore ways of imparting English language skills without ‘correcting’ idiosyncrasies that are integral to a person’s identity.

Finally, it’s important to stress that there’s nothing inherently disabling about autism when it comes to second language acquisition. Indeed, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Edinburgh found that, “Similar to their non-autistic peers, autistic people can know several languages.”  This would indicate that any barriers faced by autistic people in EFL are caused by disabling learning environments or teaching approaches, rather than autism itself. Finding ways of making TEFL more inclusive by default, therefore, is the first step to giving autistic people the same opportunities as everyone else to reach their full potential.

Andrew Theophilou

Andrew Theophilou comes from London and has worked as an online business English trainer in Portugal. Before that he taught EFL at universities, adult education centres, language schools and refugee organisations in the UK, Germany and Spain.