Opportunities and Barriers to Teaching English Language in Inclusive Classrooms: Examples from the Styrian Region in Austria
Opportunities and Barriers to Teaching English Language in Inclusive Classrooms: Examples from the Styrian Region in Austria

Summary/Abstract: Inclusive education has grown to be a vital part of current social philosophy.Teachers are expected to guide society in managing groups of children withdiverse abilities. Intending to examine English language teaching and learningin inclusive classrooms in the Austrian region, Styria, the study interviewed tenteachers regarding their perceptions, attitudes, and challenges they experiencewhile teaching English in inclusive classrooms. Their responses reveal moregeneral challenges in inclusive education than specific challenges while teach-ing English. The results highlight that these teachers are aware of children’sdiverse learning skills and their cognitive abilities, and they understand thatthese skills/abilities need to be balanced with the teacher’s teaching style. Theyalso report that the lack of teacher training for inclusive classrooms, the lack of‘extra’ teaching material, and the lack of ‘extra’ teaching/learning environ-ments make this balance difficult to achieve. In addition, their large class sizespresent an additional challenge on inclusive education. Therefore, this studysuggests the implementation of the abovementioned teachers’ needs that wouldprovide both sustainable pocket opportunities and innovative pedagogicalpractices appropriate for diverse learners.

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