I think that most of the recommended methods can facilitate foreign language learning and they are useful not only for students with special learning differences but for everyone. So, I believe that they can, and actually, are used in mainstream classrooms. For me, explicit instruction, repetition and recycling are fundamental principles of successful teaching and learning. Multisensory presentation and practice, on the other hand, don’t only help students with SpLDs, but also spice up the lesson and fight boredom as they can easily attract students’ attention.
The ideas I found most interesting, though, are building on already existent students’ knowledge and helping students develop metacognitive skills. When the teacher presents a new construction in a familiar context and one small development is presented at a time, it is easier for all the students to understand the appropriate use of the structure. Also, helping students develop metacognitive strategies and explicitly make choices is really important because they allow them to become independent users of the foreign language and most importantly, independent thinkers.
As for linear lists and mind maps, I vote for mind maps because they have got potential. They allow multiple connections with items that in a linear list would seem irrelevant. They also, comply with the principles of multisensory teaching as the digital mind maps can contain text, images, audios, videos, URLs. And since, some dyslexic minds have a gift in visual areas (as Jane Emerson said in the first video in Unit 1), mind maps are more appropriate for them (and me as well).