What might the foreign language teacher do to assist students with mild to moderate foreign language learning difficulties?
A systematic multisensory structured language (MSL) approach that benefits students who struggle to learn to read and spell in their native language also benefits students who have difficulties learning a foreign language. The following recommendations are based on the key principles of the multisensory approach: • Provide opportunities for students to practice and review a concept frequently (repetitive principle). • Teach language concepts in a logical progression and help students to categorize concepts; also organize these language concepts from simple to complex (structured, sequential principles). • Build on what students already know, and make the connection between the known and the new information explicit (cumulative principle). • Systematically and explicitly teach the phonemes or speech sounds of the foreign language. • Directly teach students the sounds of the letters in the foreign language and the letter(s) the sounds represent (alphabetic/phonetic principle). • Show stu
