Have you ever wondered: "Why does this student read so slowly?"
"Why can't I understand his handwriting?" "Why does he have so
many spelling mistakes?" "Why can't he finish the activities at the
same time the others do?" Well, there's a slight chance this student might
have Dyslexia, or some kind of Specific Learning Difference (SpLD).
A few years ago, there was this
particular Dyslexic student at school who did everything he could and even more
to improve his performance. He would rewrite his notes over and over again, in
a desperate attempt to make his handwriting a little bit legible. He just
couldn’t make it. It was useless…
Whenever I invited any of my
Dyslexic students to read aloud, they did it – all of them made great efforts
to please me. However, you could easily see how self-conscious and exposed they
felt… I thought I was helping them! Eventually, a lady in her late thirties
asked me – in private – not to call her for reading aloud in front of the
others, for she realized this made her more nervous, and as a consequence, she
read even worse. I understood then I hadn’t been helping her, because I hadn’t
considered the fact that I was only reinforcing her feeling of low self-esteem.
I think the problem might be that we EFL teachers are always trying to treat
our students equally; therefore we don’t respect the differences that make them
unique. How unfair! Shame on us!
I’ve always identified severe
Dyslexic students easily, but I just didn’t know how to help them overcome their
obstacles.
Only almost a year ago, while
attending the English Language Teachers’ Summer
Seminar held at Exeter College, Oxford, did I find some insight on the
subject. One of the incredible tutors there, Mr. Jon Hird, gave us an inspiring lecture on
Dyslexia (available here,
thanks, Jon!). Most of the things he pointed out during that presentation came
as complete revelations to me. It all made sense now!
Last April, I attended the on-line
course “Dyslexia and
Foreign Language Teaching”, organized by Lancaster University. During four weeks
I finally got to understand a lot more about the amazing variety of
difficulties Dyslexic students may have when learning a foreign language.
As part of the activities for
completing the course, I had to design a special lesson plan for Dyslexic
students.
I hope you find it useful and most
of all, your students benefit from it.
Please do write a comment if you use it and it works for you!
GIVING
DIRECTIONS - A lesson Plan
