BILINGUALISM AND DISABILITIES: LEARNING STRATEGIES

1. BILINGUALISM AND DISABILITIES:LEARNING STRATEGIES

2. Recent studies and scientific research argue that bilingualchildren have more tools to solve problems, have an advantage and are more efficient in everyday life. Access to multiple cultures benefits learning ability and mental flexibility, situations that persist even in adult life. Competence in multiple languages ​​also involves a strengthening of episodic and semantic memory with great positive effects on long-term memory and a more marked pragmatic knowledge.

3. The brain is perfectly capable of handling multiple languages ​​simultaneouslysincebirth, sincechild bilingualism is a spontaneous process that occurs if the child has frequent opportunities to hear more languages ​​and motivations to use both. Studies point out that bilingualism helps cognitive decentralization, that is, it allows us to be aware that other people can see things from a different perspective. Bilingualism also increases the capacity for attention and concentration because there is a repeated experience of temporarilyinhibiting one language when speaking the other. The best time to become completelybilingual is the very first childhood, but the systematic exposure to a second language of school age benefits from a cognitive point of view.

4. The study of languages ​​is not an end in itself but becomes a fundamental element of the formation of the person and of the citizen. The Council of Europe, founded in 1949, aims to promote the development and awareness of European cultural identity and diversity. To achieve this goal it becomes essential to promote activities that improve linguistic diversity and language learning in the educational context. Speaking in two languages, as well as strengthening a metacognitive competence, also fosters the construction of a richer and more varied cultural identity with greater openness and curiosity towards other cultures and ideas.

5. Dyslexic students who learn the foreign language are undoubtedly in a difficult context compared to their peers.

6. Dyslexia is also a characteristic of the individual, one of its peculiarities, just as the condition of bilingualism can also be seen. There are common areas between the two situations. In fact, the areas involved in the difficulties of dyslexia are those concerning the cognitive linguistic advantages of a bilingual's abilities.

7. An inclusive school is ideal for everyone, because in all school settings, diversity must be celebrated and valued and difference must be considered a resource for learning Understanding the differencemeansenhancing the uniqueness of each one, its uniqueness. The teacher must introduce the concept of diversity as a precious resource and therefore make it clear that diversity also affects cognitive styles.  In this way, it is possible to create a climateconducive to learning

8. Learning a foreign language also depends a lot on the transparency of the language you want to learn. The transparency of a language is the degree of correspondence phoneme grapheme. Among the European languages, Finnish is the mosttransparent and English the mostopaque. The German, Greek, Italian and Spanish languages ​​are quitetransparent. Danish, French, Portuguese are ratheropaque. The degree of transparency of the language stronglyinfluences the ease of reading and the speed of access to the lexicon. Dyslexia in different countries will also depend on the spoken language because the difficulties that the student with DSA encounters in the mother tongue, at the orthographic level, will also be transferred in the foreign language.

9. It is important to prioritizeoral language in the early stages of learning, so that learning the new language approaches the method of acquiring the mother tongue

10. A didactic approach is needed that will bring the learning of the new language to the mother language acquisition mechanisms as much as possible

11. The acquisition of the mother tongue takes place above all thanks to mechanisms of imitation. This is why even in teaching a foreign language we need to exploit this very effective mechanism. The brain works a lot with its associative skills because through association it is easier to memorize, especially if you involve positive emotions, creative and multisensory activities. In this, implicit memory plays a very important role because the acquisition of language can occur naturally and without conscious effort, automatically: this is what happens for the mother tongue. Explicit memory, on the other hand, is a long-term memory, essential for a conscious and non-automatic use of language, so it is a higher level.

12. It is important to favor the pragmatic dimensionthat constitutes for DSA students, a sort of compensation for the difficulties in linguistic elaboration. Non-verbal communication is requiredduringoral presentation as gestures, facialexpressions and body movements also help to better understand and are closely linked to the culture of origin. In every exercise it is important that the teacher: - evaluates the comprehensibility of the message and not the obvious errors - avoids the correction of errors explicitly, proving to have understood the message - in the written production erases the errors instead of underlining them because it is probable that the students memorize the  underlined and incorrect form

13. - suggests to the student to record the lesson - reduces the amount of homework - program repetitions to fill memory problems - usesconsistentterminology, avoidingsynonyms - introduces a new element at a time - repeats the conceptscontained in a lessonseveraltimes - does not require the formulation of grammatical rules - avoids the mnemonic study - provides concept maps and diagrams - prefersprogrammedqueries - usesvisual media as a powerpoint file

14. The movement also plays an important role in teaching foreign language learning. In fact, the brain, originally, is a motor and perceptiveorgan, so associating language with movement, that is, a linguistic element to an action, makes it possible to form a wider and more stable mental representation. For example, the TPR (Total Physical Response) method usessimpleverbalinstructions, commands, to introduce linguistic elements and schemes. The teacher gives a command, associating it with the correspondingmovement and the student must physicallyrespond, performing the appropriate action. . This approach is very useful with the DSA because it exercisesoralcomprehension. Just as in the acquisition of the mother tongue, oral production takes place onlyafter the elements and the linguistic schemes have been internalized

15. A very interesting way of learning is cooperative learning. It provides for cooperation between those who learn to develop specificdisciplinary skills but also social and relational skills. Studying together you can learn from each other, share ideas, doubts, emotions and different points of view. Cooperation activities are an excellentmeans of compensation for students with DSA or multilingual students who have not yetdevelopedadequate competence in the language of use or in the language to be learned.

16. The Approach format is a method that usesrepeatedeventssimilarlywithin the school day to memorizecommunicative speech acts, always associating words with actions and concrete objects. Everything refers to everyday experiences and objects. After manyrepetitions, the word will separate itself from the context and become part of the acquired lexicon. The continuousrepetition of the new word, proposed and often revisited in playful mode, will facilitate the memorization of the same. This approach is very useful for pupils with DSA.

17. The storytelling is a narrative approach. It usesnarration, using multiple sensorial channels and different languages: iconic, pictorial, mimic and gestural. The use of game techniques is essential because they stimulate learning, offering the student fun and playful activities that increasemotivation and involve himtotally. For the almostexclusive use of oral language, this activity is particularly useful in the case of students with DSA.

18. The choice of the textbook and the preparation of paper materials is also very important for the students with DSA. The typeface, the layout of the characters and the paper used must not create furtherobstacles in the decoding. The character used must be: - "Sans serif" - it has very evidentascending and descending traits - it has signs of differentiation with specular letters such as BPDQ - it has a font size between 12 and 14 points - it uses the capital letter for no more than 5 consecutive lines, otherwise the readability is reduced.

19. Even the layout has its importance: - the length of the line must be about 13 cm with a spacing of 1.5 - at the end of the line the word must not be divided - it is necessary to divide the text into short paragraphs, separated by a white space - to leave large margins around the printed area, useful for transcribing keywords - to highlight the important words use bold - enclose in boxes, part of the text that you want to underline. The paper used must be opaque, of a soft pastel color and with a good weight.

20. It is also important that DSA students are exempted from reading aloud. To exercise the exact pronunciation of the word, the teacher can use a speech synthesis software as a multilingual speech synthesis associated with Google Translate. There are also different dictionaries, online with associatedspeech synthesis. Some continuous and non-continuous speech recognition software are also useful, many of which are free, such as speech synthesis associated with Google Chrome. They are essential for improving pronunciation.

22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Asher, J. (1996). Learning Another Language Through Actions (5th ed.). Los Gatos, CA: Sky Oaks Productions Balboni, P.E., (2007). Le sfide di Babele. Insegnare le lingue nelle società complesse, Torino, UTET Cappa, C. (2005) Manuale di sopravvivenza: per non naufragare nella tempesta scolastica. Bologna: Coop editrice consumatori. Council of Europe (2009) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR). Strasbourg: Language Policy Unit. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/framework_en.pdf [Last accessed 18/12/2013] Daloiso, M., (2009). La dislessia evolutiva, un quadro linguistico, psicolinguistico e glottodidattico. Studi di Glottodidattica, Vol. 3, pp. 25-43 Daloiso, M., (2011), Le nuove norme in materia di disturbi specifici di apprendimento in ambito scolastico. Per un’interpretazione glottodidattica della Legge 170/20101, Scuole e lingue moderne, nn 1-3, 4-5 http://www.midossi.it/DSA/230111Daloiso_Dislessia.LS.Legge.170.pdf [Last accessed 18/12/2013] Dewey, J.,(1907) The School and Society: Beingthreelectures by John Dewey supplemented by a statement of the University Elementary School. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Dewey/Dewey_1907/Dewey_1907_toc.html [Last accessed 18/12/2013] European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (2011) Principi Guida per la Qualità dell’Istruzione nelle Classi Comuni – Raccomandazioni Didattiche, Odense, Danimarca: Agenzia europea per lo Sviluppo dell’Istruzione degli Alunni Disabili http://www.european-agency.org/publications/ereports/key-principles-for-promoting-quality-in-inclusive-education-1/keyprinciples-rec-IT.pdf [Last accessed 18/12/2013] Gabrieli, C. & Gabrieli, R. (2008) Dyslexia, what is it? Roma: Armando Editore Girard, D. (1977). Le lingue vive e il loro insegnamento. Brescia: La Scuola Graffi G. & ScaliseF.(2002). Le lingue e il linguaggio. Bologna: Il Mulino Krashen, S. D. & Terrell, T. D.(1983). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. New York : Pergamon Press, 1983

23. Nespor, M. & Bafile, L. (2008). I suoni del linguaggio” Bologna: Il Mulino Pontecorvo, D. (1995) L’apprendimento tra culture e contesti: l’apprendistato cognitivo. In C. Pontecorvo, A. Ajello & C.Zucchermaglio, I Contesti Sociali Dell’Apprendimento. Milano: LED Scalisi, T. G., Orsolini, M. & Maronato, C. (2003) Bambini in difficoltà nell’apprendimento della lingua scritta. Roma: Kappa Sugiural, L.S., Matsuba-Kurita H., Ippeita Dan I. & Hagiwara, H. (2011). Sound to Language: Different Cortical Processing for First and Second Languages in Elementary School Children as Revealed by a Large-Scale Study Using fNIRS. in Cereb. Cortex, n.21 Cooperative learning, http://www.apprendimentocooperativo.it/ [Last accessed 19/12/2013] Council of Europe, Education and Languages, Language Policy. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/ [Last accessed 18/12/2013] European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (2011) Principi Guida per la Qualità dell’Istruzione nelle Classi Comuni – Raccomandazioni Didattiche, Odense, Danimarca: Agenzia europea per lo Sviluppo dell’Istruzione degli Alunni Disabili http://www.european-agency.org/publications/ereports/key-principles-for-promoting-quality-in-inclusive-education-1/keyprinciples-rec-IT.pdf Format Approach: http://www.hocus-lotus.edu [Last accessed 19/12/2013] http://www.carolread.com/articles/s%20talk%20and%20learning.pdf [Last accessed 19/12/2013] IASCE, Cooperative Learning, http://www.iasce.net [Last accessed 19/12/2013] KeyPrinciples for Promoting Quality in Inclusive Education: Recommendations for Policy Makers http://www.european-agency.org/ publications/ereports/key-principles-for-promoting-quality-in-inclusive-education/key-principles-EN.pdf Lo story-telling per insegnare Inglese (in Italian) http://www.debbieworks.altervista.org/story_telling1.htm [Last accessed 19/12/2013] TPR-World, Resource Center for Total Physical Response. http://www.tpr-world.com/ [Last accessed 18/12/2013]

24. I am a primary school teacher, with over fifteen years of classroom experience in Italian schools. I have a degree in Pedagogy at the University of Naples and a long initial teacher education in Milan. I have achieved various post-graduate courses with which I have studied innovative and alternative teaching paths. I have always been interested in the processes of school learning and continually looking for an effective teaching methodology for all pupils, especially for those who show learning difficulties. In recent years my studies have been oriented towards educational technologies and their use in the classroom with particular regard to learning foreign languages.

25. THANKS… nunzialogos@yahoo.it