Dyslexia and EFL.

Recently, I had the great pleasure of presenting at ResearchED Toronto. I talked about Dyslexia and English as a Foreign language.

I chatted shortly after my presentation, and my interlocutor and I grinned when we exclaimed almost simultaneously that Dyslexia had been researched for decades. Yet here we were, many years later, chatting about Dyslexia and what needs to be done to help Dyslexic EFL Students.

I didn't have much time; there were other fabulous presentations, but I tried my best. However, more has to be said, hence another Golden Nuggets Newsletter Edition-Dyslexia and EFL.

?Students with Dyslexia do not learn to read without an evidence-based literacy educational background Joshi et al., (2017). Dyslexia is neurobiological in origin. We discuss it from the L1 perspective respectively. It's high time we delved deeper and looked at it from the ELL perspective.

Dyslexia affects individuals across languages and cultures, including those learning English as a second or foreign language. The prevalence of Dyslexia among EFL/ELL/ESOL students is estimated to be similar to that of native English speakers, around 5-10% of the population, Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2020).

When planning your instruction with an End in mind, make sure that your instruction is rooted in Structured Literacy.

Structured Literacy is an evidence-based?instructional approach that fosters strong reading?and writing instruction for all students.

It is comprehensive and addresses listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Structured Literacy is necessary for individuals with Dyslexia but beneficial for all learners. It is characterized by what content is taught and how content is taught, Snowling (2017).

Dyslexia & EFL -struggles.

Dyslexic EFL Students struggle with->

• phonological processing,
• slow word retrieval,
• language comprehension,
• writing, spelling
• ?sequencing.

Some students with solid background knowledge and good oral skills struggle with spelling and reading, and some will need help with all the integrated skills on the spectrum scale. The question remains, what can we, as educators, do to support them?

• First of all, build your students' oral vocabulary. One cannot communicate without a solid linguistic foundation; that's a fact. But does that mean we teach rote memorization? No, vocabulary has to be taught explicitly and in the context.
• Teach grammar explicitly. Parts of speech and parts of a sentence are the backbone of language, and words are the muscles; one cannot exist without the other.
• Teach spelling and pronunciation patterns. The English language is logical, and spelling follows patterns. It isn't straightforward, and the orthography has undergone a Great Vowel Shift, English Spelling Reform, and a printing press, just to mention a few.?
• English is like a cake: It has several layers: phonology, morphology, and etymology. Your student can grasp it, but you must build those foundational rules and remember that a Dyslexic student needs from 40 to 200 repetitions. It's not a race. It's a rinse-and-repeat process, going back and coining the elements that you have pre-taught.
• Greek and Latin roots are fundamental to language. Not only academic English but also language exams test our knowledge. Knowing that chaos is a word of Greek origin tells us a lot about spelling and pronunciation, not to mention chef (French) or beautiful, again a French word; however, it goes back to?bellitatem, Vulgar Latin*
• Decoding and encoding are crucial, and so is letter formation. AT is helpful but should serve as an addition, not a staple of your instruction.

Here are some practical strategies specifically designed for teaching Dyslexic EFL Students.

• Build and activate background knowledge.
• Teach foundational skills and use Direct Instruction.
• Build Oral Vocabulary.
• Chunk down your instruction.
• When listening, focus on spiraling; do not incorporate reading and listening simultaneously.
• A raw piece of writing is your friend; analyze it; writing is the bloodwork of reading instruction.
• Deep reading, prioritize reading on paper instead of reading on screen.
• Provide ample practice.
• Provide periodic reviews.
• Retrieval, spacing and metacognition will fire up your instruction.
• Always map phonemes and graphemes, teach spelling and reading explicitly.
• Start with the basics and build it up.

references:

Fresch, Mary Jo, and Aileen Wheaton. The Spelling List and Word Study Resource Book: Greek and Latin Roots, Word Histories, Organized Spelling Lists, and Other Resources for Dynamic Vocabulary and Spelling Instruction. Scholastic Teaching Resources, 2004.

“Biological, cognitive and educational dimensions of dyslexia: Current scientific thinking: Gavin Reid.” Dyslexia-Successful Inclusion in the Secondary School, 12 Oct. 2012, pp. 20–28, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203065273-9.

McGill, Ross Morrison. The Teacher Toolkit Guide to Memory. Bloomsbury Education, 2022.

Norton, Elizabeth S., et al. “Neural predictors of developmental dyslexia.” Developmental Dyslexia across Languages and Writing Systems, 3 Oct. 2019, pp. 253–276, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108553377.012.

Ise, Elena, and Gerd Schulte-K?rne. “Spelling deficits in dyslexia: Evaluation of an orthographic spelling training.” Annals of Dyslexia, vol. 60, no. 1, 30 Mar. 2010, pp. 18–39, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-010-0035-8.

Schiff, Rachel, and R. Malatesha Joshi. “Introduction to special issue: Spelling and morphology in different orthographies among readers with and without dyslexia.” Dyslexia, vol. 23, no. 4, Nov. 2017, pp. 319–323, https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1573.

Shaywitz, Sally E., et al. “Dyslexia in the 21st Century.” Current Opinion in Psychiatry, vol. 34, no. 2, 4 Dec. 2020, pp. 80–86, https://doi.org/10.1097/yco.0000000000000670.

‘Dyslexia from Assessment to Intervention’ Interview with Professor Maggie Snowling, 29 Sept. 2017, https://doi.org/10.13056/acamh.4070.

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