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Emotional Challenges Faced by L2 Teachers When Teaching and Assessing Students with Learning Disabilities and Difficulties

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Emotions in Second Language Teaching

Abstract

Many teachers face the challenge of students who struggle with learning. Second-language issues can add to teachers’ anxiety about how to manage intervention programming and whether to initiate a referral for special education. This chapter focuses on the concepts of learning disability versus difficulty and the perspectives of L2 teachers who must navigate the referral and identification processes of schools when considering a student for possible long-term special education services. The definition for L2 employed here could be representative of a few possible examples: a native French speaker (foreign language; L2 teacher) instructing in an English-speaking school; or a mother-tongue English teacher of a Latino child (L2 student). The second-language (L2) aspect could be on the part of the teacher or the student. In either case, the teacher has to manage the referral to possible identification process and all of its nuances.

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Correspondence to Gisela Ernst-Slavit .

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Dunn, M., Ernst-Slavit, G. (2018). Emotional Challenges Faced by L2 Teachers When Teaching and Assessing Students with Learning Disabilities and Difficulties. In: Martínez Agudo, J. (eds) Emotions in Second Language Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75438-3_13

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