The advantage of Literature Circles is the allowance for diversity.  The unit is split into reading levels according to what grade level the child reads on.  All students including those with special needs are placed in reading groups based on their ability.  This eliminates the frustration that many children face by reading too far below, or too high their reading ability.  There are many accommodations that can be made for students with special needs besides putting them in the proper reading groups.  Students classified as ESL may be partnered with a peer tutor throughout the unit, or at least for the first couple of sections.  If and when the student is ready, they may slowly break away from the partner and begin doing the jobs more independently.  This allows the student to be shown the process, and will hopefully help s/he understand better.  While in partners, the duo may be assigned the job of Word Wizard in addition to their other job.  This will help the ESL student with vocabulary.  A quick search on the internet might find a translation to the book being read in the student's native language which would facilitate understanding for the first few sections, or for all the sections if needed (see internet resource listing below).  Learning disabled students could be offered easier reading, and could also be assigned partner jobs.  If the students liked one job more than the others, perhaps the partners could agree on their favorite and do two jobs, one being the favorite and one being the assigned job.  All of these adaptations would be beneficial to special needs students.

Babelfish
Translate anything into either English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese or Spanish.

ERIC Clearinghouse on Language and Linguistics
This website collects, abstracts, and examines educational materials on languages and linguistics.

Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence
(CREDE)
This site identifies and suggests effective educational practices for linguistic and cultural minority students, and those placed at risk by factors of race, poverty, and geographic location.