Boelo has over 30 years of experience in the international language teaching industry. Being born and raised in the Netherlands, since 1994 he has worked and lived in the UK, Germany and Spain. He has occupied many roles in language schools, from marketing manager to school owner and course developer, and for the past 8 years, language coach, international researcher, dyslexia expert and teacher trainer. Being a dyslexic himself and a fluent speaker of 3 languages, he has developed a dyslexia-friendly language teaching and coaching strategy that has already significantly improved the learning outcomes of many dyslexic and ADHD language learners around the world. Boelo is a member of the IATEFL IP&SEN SIG Committee, and a board member of the European Dyslexia Group as well as the International Language Coaching Association.

Session Synopsis:

Creating Inclusive Learning Environments

Bruno is 15 years old and is dyslexic. He belongs to the 15-20% of all students who have a neurodiverse brain. This could be dyslexia, ADHD, autism, dyspraxia, etc. For him, as well as for so many of his neurodiverse peers, learning English is a true nightmare. When talking about this with Bruno, he says that, for him, English is a “closed door”. At the age of 15, he has already given up on it.

THIS SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO HAPPEN!

And we can avoid it.

As language teachers, it is not our job nor responsibility to diagnose our students with any type of neurodiversity. But we can recognize possible signs and we also can create learning environments where ALL students can thrive, so also those whose brain processes information in a different way.

In this talk, I aim to:

1. raise awareness of neurodiversity
2. explore the links between neurodiversity and language learning
3. explore ideas to help neurodiverse students in their language learning and create inclusive learningenvironments.

Teachers will walk away with a clear understanding of neurodiversity, a different perspective on the topic, awareness of the prevalence of neurodiversity among their students and a heightened level of empathy. But, most of all, they will start making a difference for their own “Brunos” and make sure that the door to English will never close on them.