What program design elements facilitate instruction of learners with special needs?
A variety of program arrangements have been introduced in response to the growing awareness of the needs of vulnerable learners. Key principles in designing appropriate options are flexibility, differentiation, and continuity (Plimer, Candlin, Lintjens, & McNaught, 1996). Flexibility of delivery for the target group refers to client choice in terms of location, access, intensity, mode, curriculum, and methodology. Differentiation and continuity require that programs remain contextualized within the mainstream framework and do not, in the process of accommodating special needs, set up new barriers to mainstream access. The national curriculum framework of the AMEP Certificates I-III in Spoken and Written English (NSW AMES, 1995) differentiates between learners according to three dimensions: their language proficiency level, their learning pace, and their needs and goals in learning English. Within the accredited framework learners are able to access a wide variety of programs, ranging f