New Perspectives On Contemporary Second Language Education Curriculum For Russian Learners On The Autism Spectrum

Abstract

Russian educators face two main challenges creating a comprehensive second language curriculum for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Firstly, no two students have identical needs. Since many Russian linguistic curricula prioritize the teacher’s lectures over student-directed tasks (Abramova et al., 2013), many teachers struggle with feeling too untrained and unequipped to accommodate each individual student’s needs (Aysina, et al., 2020). Secondly, students with ASDs frequently have developmental language disorders (DLDs) that may include impairments with dampened or hyper-sensitivity to changes in pitch (Eigsti, & Fein, 2013), understanding inflectional exceptions (Marchman et al., 1999), comfort speaking (Wire, 2005), and sometimes with receptive and communicative clarity (Lyakso et al., 2020; Rakhlin et al., 2015). In light of these challenges, many contemporary Russian educators remain unsure of how to best include students with ASDs and DLDs into their general classrooms (Aysina et al., 2020). However, recent research in language skills of learners with ASDs and DLDs suggests that special educators have underestimated their students’ second language interests and abilities to excel in an inclusive classroom (Caldwell-Harris, 2022; Zhukova et al., 2021). As is common with nearly everyone, autistic people often think and comprehend more than they can often express or express quickly (Arutiunian et al., 2021). This thesis proposes several positive additions and new perspectives to second language curricula in Russia that assist students with ASDs to benefit from languages and language skills where opportunities may not have previously existed. Established evidence from non-Russian language courses supports this claim (Wendorff, 2016), but Russia’s unique language, and social and educational conventions demand similar yet tailored strategies to achieve similarly positive results. How can Russian special educators adjust their foreign language education methodologies to be integrative for students with ASDs and DLDs? How do native Russian speakers’ language skills and DLDs influence how they comprehend and use second languages? What effects do learning second languages have in autistic people’s lives? Drawing on Russian and international research articles, as well as landmark essays from L. Vygotsky, this thesis reports the present special education paradigm and its availability for additions. Next, this thesis considers current research articles that study common receptive and expressive conversational features that people on the autism spectrum have. This thesis mostly examines the Russian language with regards to how teachers should accommodate specifically Russian speech tendencies on the autism spectrum when teaching a second language. Finally, this thesis combines the research on Russian linguistic traits for people with ASDs and Russia’s historically-formed socio-political and cultural contexts to establish where new pedagogical perspectives may progress the field. This thesis opens with an introductory chapter on the pedagogical history of Russian special education. The past paradigm must be established to demonstrate why and where present adjustments fit. The second chapter covers communicative traits in Russian monolinguals and bilinguals with ASDs and DLDs. The third chapter discusses the values and effects of teaching autistic native Russian-speakers languages besides Russian. The fourth chapter describes presently-developing strategies for teaching foreign languages to students on the autism spectrum in accordance with several pedagogical settings and goals. This thesis ends with a conclusion that summarizes each chapter while offering implications and directions for future research.