Autism-friendly modern foreign language teaching in a university setting: Towards a toolkit for teaching second languages to autistic students

de Saint-Seine, Caroline ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3582-7108, Chown, Ekaterina and Youdale, James (2026) Autism-friendly modern foreign language teaching in a university setting: Towards a toolkit for teaching second languages to autistic students. British Journal of Special Education, 53 (3). pp. 374-388. ISSN 0952-3383

Preview

PDF (British J Special Edu - 2026 - Saint�Seine - Autism�friendly modern foreign language teaching in a university setting) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper summarises the findings of a research project at a British university exploring autistic students studying modern foreign languages (MFL). The project investigates the experiences, motivations, learning strategies and preferences of autistic MFL learners in a Higher Education context to better understand how MFL classroom pedagogy can be designed more inclusively. This interdisciplinary study combines pedagogic, clinical linguistic and anthropological perspectives. This study, which is based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews and focus groups, suggests that specific types of language classroom settings, activities and linguistic content disadvantage autistic learners. While autistic students appreciated approaches that supported their individual learning preferences, certain routine aspects of established MFL pedagogy—such as spontaneous improvisation in a target language—increased anxiety and led to declared non-attendance. Drawing on these findings, we provide recommendations to prevent or mitigate their impact. A concise bulleted guidance on autism-friendly language teaching for the reference of MFL educators is available from DCAD (2025), https://dcad-resourcebank.webspace.durham.ac.uk/2025/05/12/autism-inclusive-teaching-of-foreign-languages-in-higher-education/.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data Availability Statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	autism,higher education,second language acquisition,sen foreign language pedagogy,education,developmental and educational psychology,das in place,data availability statement: the data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. the data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.,2026 ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3300/3304
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Related URLs:	https://www.scopus.com/pages/publication...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	28 Oct 2026 15:43
Last Modified:	28 Oct 2026 15:43
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/104905
DOI:	10.1111/1467-8578.70105

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item