Inclusive Education in Foreign Language Teaching: What is the First Step to Make it Work?

Abstract

With the international call and legal requirements for inclusive education an increasing number of
students with special educational needs are enrolled in mainstream schools. While lack of training and
feeling of unpreparedness is often some teachers’legitimate reason for reluctance to teach learners with
disabilities, it is the teachers’own awareness of the right of all individuals to quality and inclusive
education that builds the foundation for inclusive education to take place. The paper reviews the
principles and policy of inclusion, the way inclusive education is introduced in Bulgaria, and presents a
survey among twenty-six teachers of English and four teachers of other foreign languages living in
Bulgaria about their attitude to teaching students with disabilities. The findings show a relatively
reserved attitude and lack of initiative in some teachers to look for specialized assistance or additional
guidelines. Unarguably, teaching learners with special educational needs is a challenging task. The author
claims that in these difficult conditions, raising awareness of inclusive education.