Access for Success: Making Inclusion Work for Language Learners

Access for Success: Making Inclusion Work for Language Learners is the first educational text of its kind to integrate principles and theories about Universal Design for Learning and language learning with practical strategies to address the diverse needs of today’s language learners in Canada. Drs. Katy Arnett and Renée Bourgoin accomplish this by establishing four Access Points or steps to inclusive language education:

1. Knowledge IS access.
2. Know your language learners. Empower them.
3. Universal language actions and differentiation that support comprehension, production, attention, and overall language development.
4. Make informative decisions regarding assessment and protocols to facilitate inclusion.

The authors’ strategies are backed by sound research and years of in-class, hands-on experience. Access for Success is a comprehensive resource that can be used by all second-language teachers who seek to make inclusion part of their classrooms.

Dr. Katy Arnett is a faculty member at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, where she is a Professor and Director of Teacher Education. She holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from OISE/UT. A former high school French teacher and Fulbright Scholar, Katy has focused much of her work as a scholar on accessible second language learning, seeking research and writing opportunities that allow her to help teachers make their second language learning settings as inclusive as possible. She is also the author of Languages for all: How to support and challenge students in a second language classroom (Pearson Canada, 2013) and co-senior author of Point de Connexion (Pearson Canada, 2015).

For over a decade, she has designed and led over 100 workshops on inclusive second language teaching across Canada. She is an Honorary Research Associate at the Second Language Research Institute of Canada at the University of New Brunswick.

Dr. Renée Bourgoin is currently a Faculty Associate and an Honorary Research Associate at the Second Language Research Institute of Canada (L2RIC) at the University of New Brunswick, within the Faculty of Education. Before becoming a member of the L2RIC’s research team on exemplary second language teaching practices, Renée worked as a classroom immersion teacher and school district subject coordinator. 

She is the author of several academic and pedagogical resources in the areas of literacy acquisition and pedagogy, biliteracy, at-risk/struggling second language readers, cross-linguistic transfer, and inclusion in language immersion. Renée also disseminates her work at academic and educational conferences and delivers district-wide and school-based professional learning workshops for educators in Canada and abroad.