EFL/ESL Teachers’ Perception of Students with Learning Disabilities in Bangladesh

AbstractThe number of students with special education needs is not clearly categorized in Bangladesh. Students with visible and perceptible physical and psychological disabilities may ask for supports and facilities that are required for their educational progress. But students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, ADHD do not get such services in Bangladesh. This paper focuses on the English language teachers in Bangladesh teaching at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary level to understand their perceptions of learning disabilities and intervention strategies. It also asks how the teachers would accommodate any students with learning disabilities in their classrooms. A blend of quantitative and qualitive data has been extracted in the process through in-person and virtual interviews with the teachers. Twelve teachers participated voluntarily in this study and shared their insight based on their personal experiences. Most of them claimed to have heard about learning disabilities but were not able to explain the term and relate with their experience. They expressed a positive inclination to accommodate children with any type of disabilities in their classrooms regardless of their pedagogical or infrastructural capacity. Further studies are required in this field since current literature largely exclude students with learning disabilities in Bangladesh.