It’s official! I am wrapping up the development of a course I have designed and will teach this summer for MSU’s Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching program: Individual Differences and Accessibility in Foreign Language Teaching. Since I have long believed that disability nests naturally under an umbrella of Individual Differences discourse within second language research, I have added explicit coverage of disability to the individual differences traditionally covered in a course like this (age, aptitude, education, motivation, socioeconomic status, etc.). I have woven an accessibility thread through the course to shape and scaffold our discussions of difference and how language teachers can support their students’ learning. Importantly, I have infused the course with accessible teaching approaches and inclusive pedagogical design not only because it’s what I aim to do in all my courses, but also so that the course will serve as a model for the language educators (or future language educators) in my course of what accessible course design can look like for their future classes.
Caitlin Cornell 