In Alex Silverman’s Language in the World class, we talked about many aspects of language, including how it is a reflection of culture, and how cultural conflict is reflected in (sometimes even caused by) language conflict, and how English’s move towards “linguafrancahood” has changed the cultural significance of learning English, and of speaking English.

One aspect of language that I would like to add to this discourse is the impact of neurological and emotional diversity on language. I would also include in this topic the relationship of mental health and language (see next post).

My particular interest is in the relationship between autism and language, because autism runs in my family. It is widely noted in the literature that autistic people learn language differently, and use language differently from non-autistic people. Indeed idiosyncratic language use is a diagnostic for autism. The word “diagnostic” implies that autism is a pathology, and I am not entirely in agreement with this equation. I believe that autism may be a neurological trait that predisposes people to certain pathologies, such as compulsive, perseverative or avoidant behavior, which may interfere one’s ability to live a healthy life or interact with others in culturally acceptable ways.

While autism is widely associated with communicative dysfunction and limited language ability, it is also true that autistic people can be some of the most successful language learners. An example is Daniel Tammet, author of Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant.

Although autistic people are very varied, autistic people do tend to congregate in certain fields, and around certain hobbies. I believe that the growing demand for ESL/EFL instruction has attracted its fair share of autistic people, and that, as a matter of course, quite a few ESL/EFL students are “on the spectrum” as well. This last statement is pure conjecture: one cannot, under normal circumstances, ask a student or a colleague if they are autistic, so it is difficult to imagine how one might go about measuring the rate of autism among English language learners.

What are the implications of this for the field of ESL/EFL, and for LT in general? I believe there are two important issues:

1. Autistic teachers may find certain types of lesson design very appealing, and others very off-putting. This is true for everyone, perhaps, but I am talking about a very high level of “appealing” and “off-putting”. In other words, there may be a certain sameness to the autistic teacher’s lesson planning and teaching style. And an autistic teacher may be particularly resistant to change.
2. Autistic students may find certain types of lesson design very appealing, and others very off-putting. Again, true for everyone, but here to a more extreme degree. An autistic student may, for example, be content to memorize huge vocabulary lists, but participate only minimally in classroom conversation. Or participate too much and too enthusiastically.

I don’t have any guidelines for incorporating autistic people in a more inclusive way into the classroom, or into the teacher training community — yet, but I believe we should be working towards such guidelines. At this point, I believe the most important way in which we can accommodate autistic teachers’ and students’ needs is to encourage everyone to advocate for themselves, and to listen carefully to what is asked for. If, for example, a student says “I don’t want to participate in roleplays—they make me uncomfortable,” let’s honor that statement. If, for example, a teacher says (to the DOS), “I don’t want to use music to teach this lesson, music is distracting for me,” let’s honor that statement, too.

Striving for mutual tolerance is beneficial, not just to autistic people, of course, but to everyone. Dyslexic students are now starting to be able to say, “I am dyslexic, and need more time to take the test,” and teachers are starting to be able to respond to this with respect and flexibility. We have a long way to go with this, but my hope is that educational systems continue to evolve towards the point where everyone (teacher and student alike) is empowered to advocate for themselves, so that they can always ask (and often receive) what they need to learn in the ways that work best for them.