La idiomaticidad en el trastorno del espectro autista (TEA)el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de unidades fraseológicas idiomáticas en alumnado de educación secundaria con TEA de grado 1

Abstract

People diagnosed with ASD stand out, among other factors, for showing difficulties in the development of pragmatic language skills, among which we can find an excessive literalness in the interpretation of double meanings, jokes, ironies and all sorts of figurative language. For this reason, autistic learners frequently encounter difficulties in understanding idiomatic phraseological units (PUs) since their meaning cannot be deduced from the isolated meaning of each of their constituent elements. Thus, a greater phraseological knowledge is needed to work with neurodivergent learners on the difficulties arising from the characteristic idiomaticity of this type of expressions and other forms of figurative language, such as metaphors, metonymy, humour, sarcasm, irony, among other features. Likewise, the motivation of this thesis arises from the interest in enhancing the teaching-learning process of the idiomatic component in students with Grade 1 ASD by means of idiomatic phraseology, with the aim that this group can strengthen their communicative competence. Therefore, in this compendium of publications thesis, two hypotheses are put forward, which highlight that, in the first instance, the comprehension and production of idiomaticity by Secondary Education students with Grade 1 ASD can be worked on through formative interventions and, in the second instance, the methodology for working on idiomaticity in the MT by Secondary Education students with Grade 1 ASD can be similar to that used to work on idiomaticity in the FL by neurotypical students. In order to achieve the general objective and validate the hypotheses put forward in this thesis, on the one hand, a scoping review has been developed based on the PRISMA method and, on the other hand, two interventions have been designed, implemented and evaluated to work both the idiomatic and emotional components in Secondary Education: one aimed at neurotypical learners in the foreign language (FL) classroom and the other aimed at learners with ASD in the mother tongue (MT) classroom, within the framework of evaluative research and case study. The quantitative analysis of the different studies has made it possible to establish some general guidelines for the teaching and learning of language competence in the MT with learners diagnosed with Grade 1 ASD in Secondary Education. These guidelines can be summarized as follows: the acquisition of competence in relation to figurative language depends on pragmatic issues, in addition to purely linguistic ones; the teaching methodology used for the teaching-learning of phraseology in the FL classroom is applicable to the acquisition of idiomatic competence in students with Grade 1 ASD in their MT; PUs can be used as a vehicle to address all manifestations of figurative language, visual support promotes the understanding of idiomaticity; Phraseodidactics, originally designed for the FL didactics, can be adopted, in the same way, in the teaching-learning of the MT and also of extra-linguistic elements, as it is the case of the perception and management of emotions. In addition, this can have a therapeutic application.