Diploma Thesis - Teaching Apporoaches of Language School Teachers in Relation to Dyslexic Learners

8/11/2019 Diploma Thesis - Teaching Apporoaches of Language School Teachers in Relation to Dyslexic Learners

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Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

Teaching Approaches of Language School

Teachers in Relation to Dyslexic Students

Diploma Thesis

Brno 2012

Supervised by: Written by:

Dr. Rita Chalmers Collins Bc. Kateina evkov


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DeclarationI declare that I have written the diploma thesis on my own and that I have

used only sources listed in references.

I agree with storing this work in the library of Pedagogical Faculty at

Masaryk University in Brno and with its publication for study purposes.

Prohlen Prohlauji, e jsem diplomovou prci zpracovala samostatn a pouila jen

prameny uveden v seznamu literatury.

Souhlasm, aby prce byla uloena na Masarykov univerzit v Brn v

knihovn Pedagogick fakulty a zpstupnna ke studijnm elm.

..............................................................

podpis


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Acknowledgements

I would like to take this opportunity to thank to the supervisor of my diploma

thesis Dr. Rita Chalmers Collins for her patient help and valuable advice and

comments which contributed to the compilation of this work.

I would also like to thank to the respondents of my questionnaire research

whose honest responses provided a solid base for the practical part of this work.


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Content

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 5

2. THEORETICAL PART............................................................................ 8

2.1 Specific Learning Difficulties ................................................................ ................................ 8 2.1.1 Dyslexia .............................................................................................................................. 9

2.1.1.1 The definition ............................................................................................................ 9 2.1.1.2 A brief overview of the history of dyslexia ............................................................. 10 2.1.1.3 The nature of dyslexia ............................................................................................. 11

2.1.2 Dysgraphia and dysorthographia ......................................................... .............................. 12

2.2 Chosen approaches in foreign language teaching ............................................................. 14 2.2.1 The nature of approaches and methods .......................................................... ................... 14 2.2.2 Communicative Language Teaching .............................................................. ................... 16 2.2.3 The Natural Approach .............................................................. ......................................... 18 2.2.4 Cooperative Language Learning ......................................................... .............................. 20 2.2.5 Task-Based Language Teaching ......................................................... .............................. 22 2.2.6 Multiple Intelligences ............................................................... ......................................... 23 2.2.7 Lexical Approach .......................................................... .................................................... 25 2.2.8 Eclectic Approach ......................................................... .................................................... 26 2.2.9 Multisensory Learning Approach ........................................................ .............................. 27

2.3 Interventions in TEFL to dyslexic learners ....................................................................... 29 2.3.1 Multisensory techniques ........................................................... ......................................... 30 2.3.2 Structured information ............................................................. ......................................... 32 2.3.3 Over-learning .................................................................................................................... 32 2.3.4 Metacognition ................................................................................................................... 33 2.3.5 Slowed pace of presentation ................................................................ .............................. 34 2.3.6 Personal motivation ....................................................... .................................................... 34 2.3.7 Coping with short concentration span ............................................................ ................... 35 2.3.8 Testing and examination interventions.............................................................................. 36

2.4 Summary of the theoretical part ........................................................... .............................. 37

3. PRACTICAL PART .............................................................................. 39

3.1 Questionnaire Research .............................................................. ......................................... 39 3.1.1 Aims ........................................................ ................................................................. ......... 39 3.1.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 39 3.1.3 Description of the setting .................................................................................................. 40 3.1.4 Teacher demographics ...................................................................................................... 41 3.1.5 Analysis and evaluation of the results ............................................................ ................... 42

3.1.5.1 Teachers awareness o f SLD and dyslexia .............................................................. 42 3.1.5.2 Interventions and multisensory techniques .............................................................. 44 3.1.5.3 Learning types/styles ................................................................ ............................... 45 3.1.5.4 Teaching approaches ............................................................................................... 46

3.1.6 Discussion of the hypotheses and recommendations ........................................................ 47

4. CONCLUSION ...................................................................................... 49

5. SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 51


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6. RESUM .............................................................................................. 51

7. REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 52 7.1.1 Print Sources ..................................................................................................................... 52 7.1.2 Electronic Sources ......................................................... .................................................... 54

7.1.3 Dictionaries ....................................................................................................................... 56 7.1.4 Online tool ........................................................................................................................ 56

8. LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................ 57

8.1 App. 1: Checklist of Warning Signs of Dyslexia for Teachers ......................................... 57

8.2 App. 2: Multiple Intelligences Test ................................................................ ..................... 57

8.3 App. 3: Distribution of MI in groups A and B .................................................................. 57

8.4 App. 4: Research Questionnaire + Statistics ............................................................. ......... 57


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1. Introduction

Nowadays, in the time of globalization and crossing borders towards

multiculturalism it is highly important for a well-educated individual, especiallywhen coming from a not very large country, to be able to speak a foreign language.

Having or not having this knowledge might influence the possible future career of

most of the young adults. The system of primary and secondary education in the

Czech Republic has been undergoing a process of significant reforms for several

years. Compulsory foreign language education can begin as early as in the third

grade of a primary school and continues until completion of the secondary level.

There are primary schools with extra foreign language classes or even secondary

schools providing education in foreign language only. However, under the increasing

demands on language competence, lifelong learning is for many people inevitable.

To foster their foreign language knowledge, a considerable number of post-

secondary learners apply to study at private language schools every year. There are

intensive one-year courses accredited by the Ministry of Education, Youth and

Sports, which aim at this group of learners. The courses are attended by learners of

approximately the same language level and age (around 20 years with some

exceptions). However, such a group is not homogenous as it may seem at the first

sight. The learners come from various educational backgrounds (secondary

vocational schools, grammar schools) equipped with various levels of aptitude for

learning foreign languages, various motivational factors and interests. Although, it is

not common for language school administrators to inquire about any type of specific

learning difficulties prior to enrolling these students on the course, we can suppose

that if there were learners diagnosed with a specific learning difficulty (usually

dyslexia) integrated at secondary schools, there must also be some at language

schools.

Depending on severity of the learning difficulty, dyslexic learners usually

receive a number of accommodations or adaptations, for instance an individual

learning plan, to compensate their learning difficulties. Both the primary and

secondary school teachers are supposed to cooperate closely with parents,


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psychologists and Pedagogical-psychological Advisory Service and are supposed to

gain general information about this subject. Based on the information gained, they

are supposed to choose appropriate teaching methods, approaches and techniques.

Although, it proves no sooner than in the end of a mid-term that there is one

or even more dyslexic students in the class, in my opinion the private language

school teachers should be able to respond to this finding to the same extent as

primary and secondary foreign language teachers are supposed to. However,

attention was focused m ainly on acquisition of learners mother tongue in the past

years. Not until a few last years has more explicit and systematic attention been paid

to foreign language acquisition. Grenarova et al. (in Bartonova, 2007) sums up

number of deficits related to this fact, among them insufficient readiness of foreign

language teachers to deal with this group of learners or an insufficient offer of forms

of further education related to this subject, nevertheless, in my opinion also private

language school teachers should be aware of the needs of students with specific

learning difficulties and should be able to consult the subject also with foreign

language scholarly references and to apply appropriate teaching methodology. They

should be professionals with excellent not only linguistic but also methodology

knowledge, to be able to cope with mixed-ability classes and learners with specific

learning difficulties.

During my teaching practice at a language school in Brno I have found out

that every year there will appear at least one student with some of the specific

learning difficulties. I wanted to help the struggling students but as a novice teacher

lacking of experience I felt rather unsure about the methodology options. So, I

decided to consult with my colleagues and scholarly literature and this has made mechoose this current issue as the topic of my thesis.

The thesis consists of two parts. In the theoretical part will be described

general features of specific learning difficulties with focus on dyslexia followed by a

lay out of theoretical background of several chosen approaches in language teaching

and their appropriateness to dyslexic learners. Based on the multisensory approach

there will be suggested implications for teaching English as a foreign language(TEFL) to dyslexic learners. The research in the practical part will map the


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2. Theoretical Part

2.1 Specific Learning Difficulties

During my teacher training at the Faculty of Education I attended an

introductory one-term course on special pedagogy. The course consisted of

approximately ten lectures accompanied by the same number of seminars. In one of

the early lectures was established that specific learning difficulties (SLD) is a

collective term for a number of developmental or acquired difficulties in acquisition

of basic school skills such as reading dyslexia , writing dysgraphia , spelling

dysortographia , mathematical operations dyscalculia , motor skills dyspraxia , andeven further could be distinguished problems in drawing and painting dyspinxia

and problems in listening and writing music dysmusia . I assume that it will not be

far from the truth if I say that most of the graduate students or novice teachers can

enumerate this distinction perfectly, however, if they met a dyslexic learner in their

practice, they might feel that they should know more about the manifestations of

SLD, especially in relation to a foreign language learning and teaching. Therefore,

the impact of dyslexia on English language learning and possible accommodations of

will be examined in this and the following chapter.

The term specific learning difficulty is used in British scholarly literature and

specific learning disabilities prevail in American literature. (Zelinkova, 2006: 122)

With regard to referential literature from various language resources, I have decided

to use the term specific learning difficulties unless there are passages of direct

quotations from American literature and quotations from Czech resources are

translated by me.

As listed above, SLD is a complex term that is why the main attention in this

thesis will be devoted to a language processing difficulty named dyslexia which is

believed to be the most common and very often accompanied by dysgraphia.

Accordingly, Zelinkova (2006: 4) in her book uses the term dyslexia for both the

reading as well as the writing disorder in cases where she does not need to

differentiate for the sake of diagnosis or re-education. SLD are often accompanied by


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behavioural disorders labelled as ADD Attention Deficit Disorder or ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder which may severely impair individuals

development of social competence and interpersonal relations.

Zelinkova (2006: 3) stresses that to understand specific difficulties of a child

it is necessary to have at least partial knowledge of theory, because on theory are

based generally applicable approaches to learners which can be applied to individuals

of regular population as well. She points out that theory is the starting point for

creating optimal methods of work because every learner is different, the causes of

his/her difficulties may differ. These factors implicate that any of the methods could

not be universally applicable to all individuals with SLD.

2.1.1 Dyslexia

2.1.1.1 The definition

There are slight differences in the definitions of dyslexia in different

countries. Even within one country definitions may vary. According to Elke

Schneider and Margaret Crombie (2003: 3) is dyslexia understood as a language processing difficulty to varying degrees that affect mainly reading and writing in

letter, number and/or musical symbols. These difficulties occur because of differing

abilities of the brain to process auditory and/or visually presented information. While

dyslexia cannot be cured, specific accommodations through professional teaching

can provide the dyslexic individual with successful coping strategies. Pedagogical

interventions that they suggest in the definition will be examined in later chapters of

this work.

Gavin Reid would define dyslexia as a processing difference experienced by

people of all ages. Often characterized by difficulties in literacy, it can affect other

cognitive areas such as memory, speed of processing, time management,

coordination and directional aspects. There may be visual and phonological

difficulties and there is usually some discrepancy in performances in different areas

of learning. (Reid, 2007: 123) He emphasises the importance of individual


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differences and learning styles being acknowledged since these will affect outcomes

of learning and assessment.

There are plenty of definitions of dyslexia created by individual authors of

educational publications. The vast majority of them are based on scientific research

and on documents issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) which orders

dyslexia to specific developmental disorders of scholastic skills under disorders of

psychological development defined in the so called Blue Book. Its origina l title is

Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders and it contents clinical

descriptions and diagnostic guidelines. All the above mentioned documents are parts

of ICD-10 1.

2.1.1.2 A brief overview of the history of dyslexia

Apparently dyslexia is not an invention of recent times. It has history

reaching far to the past. It was discovered by doctors of various specializations

(ophthalmologists, school doctors, neurologists) and abroad it has still been in the

centre of attention of many specialists (geneticists, neuropsychologists and

biochemists, naturally pedagogues, psychologists, speech therapists and teachers). Ifthere occur voices claiming that there was nothing similar before, Zelinkova (2006:

9) points out that they rather show a non-sensitive attitude toward individual

difficulties of some pupils and they are manifestation of a particular absence of

education. She highlights that it is unacceptable to ignore the group of dyslexic

individuals or to dismiss their difficulties.

There have been established many associations raising awareness of dyslexiain the English speaking countries, such as the British Dyslexia Association 2 in the

UK or the International Dyslexia Association 3 in the USA. In the Czech Republic

1 ICD-10 means International Classification of Diseases. It is the international standard diagnosticclassification for all general epidemiological, many health management purposes and clinical use.

It is used to classify diseases and other health problems.www.who.int/classifications/icd/en/index.html

2 [26] http://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/3 [40] http://www.interdys.org/


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there operates Czech Organization Dyslexie 4 founded in 1999. Already in 1972

was published a methodical guideline on establishing special classes, evaluation and

classification of their pupils.

2.1.1.3 The nature of dyslexia

Dyslexia represents a very isolated weakness. Sally Shaywitz (2003: 36) in

her work emphasizes that other intellectual ability, such as thinking, reasoning and

understanding are untouched by dyslexia and perhaps even enhanced. Concluding

from a longitudinal study conducted in Connecticut, the reading difficulty affects

approximately one child in five. The study also indicated an interesting contradiction

in school identified and research identified percentages of boys and girls. Schools

identify more boys than girls; the ratio is 1:5. Also Zelinkova (2006: 4) and other

authors assume this ratio. However, when individually tested, the percentages were

comparable. Shaywitz draws attention to typical teachers judgement of behavioural

stereotypes of boys and girls. She suggests that well-mannered girls are less

noticeable than noisy and lively boys and consequently they may be identified to

have reading difficulties much later or perhaps never. The study also revealed the

fact that dyslexia is persistent to a particular degree. The degree of impairment andits manifestations vary during individuals life -time and from individual to

individual.

There are several possible causes of the origin of dyslexia. In research based

theories specialists report for instance on heredity (in 40 50%) or changes in the

brain structure and functioning, which manifest in the inaccuracies in visual and

auditory perception - phonemic awareness which refers to the ability to notice,identify and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words - deficits

in language processing of mother tongue and consequently of a foreign language,

deficits in short-term and working memory, slowed pace of cognitive processing and

problems with automaticity. (Schneider and Crombie, 2003, Shaywitz, 2003,

Zelinkova, 2006) For more specific manifestations of dyslexia please see the

checklist for teachers in Appendix 1 which gives possible warning signs. The

checklist can be found in Jenny Cogan and Mary Fleckers book on dyslexia in

4 [29] http:/ /www.czechdyslexia.cz/
http://www.czechdyslexia.cz/http://www.czechdyslexia.cz/


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secondary school (2004: 2) and can be a useful identification tool for those teachers

who wish to help poor readers. Although, this checklist is not intended for EFL

learners, I believe that it can be used in Czech secondary or language schools as well.

Even more detailed symptomology checklist of learning difficulties is presented by

Sandra Rief and Julie Heimburge (1996: 169-173). Also Czech specialists such as

Matejcek (1995) or Pokorna (2010) give the common characteristics of learners with

dyslexia. Subsequent problems associated with dyslexia should not be

underestimated. Lack of experience of success may, according to the majority of

specialists, cause frustration and emotional problems which might make dyslexic

students feel embarrassed and that might lead to loss of motivation. Some authors

also reflect didactogenic causes such as inappropriate pedagogical approaches.

Zelinkova (2006) warns that inappropriate methodology of teaching reading and

writing does not explicitly cause dyslexia, dysgraphia or dysorthographia, but the

subsequent difficulties are very similar to these particular disorders. It is obvious that

reading and writing at primary level were meant by this but as we will discuss later,

different methodologies of teaching these skills in EFL classes will definitely have

different impact on their acquisition. She adds that every child should be taken

appropriate care of, although, it does not suffer from the disorder in every sense of

the word. I believe that these arguments should be related to the methodology used at

any level of foreign language teaching. Postsecondary courses at language schools

should be no exception. However, it is not necessary to deal with the diagnosis in

detail for the purposes of this thesis, as the focus is on possible interventions related

to teaching approaches.

2.1.2 Dysgraphia and dysorthographiaDysgraphia is a form of a writing disorder. Dyslexia and dysgraphia are very

often related because significant language processing problems can impact both

reading and spelling. The handwriting is not legible, it is too small or too large, there

is poor letter formation and a lot of crossing outs. These cues can make a more

perceptive teacher aware that there might be some possibility of a learning difficulty.

However, it is normal that handwriting gets worse during individuals life -time,

especially in the phase of puberty, and we should also distinguish betweendysgraphia and poor handwriting caused by too much pressure put on the writing


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speed and amount of produced text. (Zelinkova, 2006: 15-16) In the computerized

age, using handwriting may seem old-fashioned to some individuals. On the other

hand, I would argue that writing is an important adult activity necessary for filling in

forms, taking messages or notes, creating lists or signing documents. Many authors

conclude that everyone needs to acquire a certain level of writing skills even if they

cannot write for a long period of time. (Dysgraphia defined 1)

Czech authors distinguish another writing difficulty dysorthographia which

is considered to be rather a spelling and grammar difficulty. Its manifestations such

as misspelling of words (learners write words in the same way as they hear them),

incorrect grammar and word usage (e.g. difficulties in distinguishing parts of speech

or in relations between sentence constituents) or limited expression of ideas are

included under dysgraphia in the Anglo- Saxon setting. (Dysgraphia defined 1)

The aim of my thesis is not to discuss the above mentioned deficits in depth. I

believe that language school teachers are not supposed to diagnose dyslexia or other

learning difficulty in young adult learners as it is a matter of specialists and in

addition, pupils should be screened for these difficulties at primary schools or at

secondary schools at the latest. The starting point of the thesis is my experience that

these learners had been diagnosed and depending on the severity of their difficulties

they had received special interventions before, however, when they continued their

education at language school they, may be because of embarrassment, did not

mention their difficulties to the school administrators or not even to their teacher at

the beginning of the course. Obviously, some of their learning difficulties occurred in

the course of time and something had to be done to help them succeed. So, the next

chapters will describe eight chosen approaches in language teaching andconsequently possible interventions or techniques in teaching dyslexic learners will

be suggested.


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2.2 Chosen approaches in foreign language teaching

2.2.1 The nature of approaches and methodsAuthors Jack Richards and Theodore Rodgers (2001) see the difference

between the theory and principles and derived classroom procedures to be central in

describing methods. In 1963, the American applied linguist Edward Anthony

proposed a three-level scheme of the following terms: approach , method and

technique .

According to Anthonys model, approach is the level at which assumptions and beliefs aboutlanguage and language learning are specified; method is the level at which theory is put into practice

and at which choices are made about the particular skills to be taught, the content to be taught, and the

order in which the content will be presented; technique is the level at which classroom procedures are

described. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 19)

Altho ugh Anthonys model seemed to be simple and comprehensive,

Richards and Rodgers revised and extended it in the areas of method and technique.

They defined the level of design , in which objectives, syllabus, and content aredetermined, and in which the roles of teachers, learners, and instructional materials

are specified. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 20) They also substituted Anthonys

term technique by the term procedure . It means that a method is theoretically based

on an approach, is determined by the above mentioned features of a design and is

practiced in a procedure, which are classroom techniques, practices and interaction

patterns. However, they admit that very few methods are explicit with respect to all

of these dimensions and that methods can develop out of any of the three categories

(2001: 32 34), therefore, the majority of chosen teaching practices which will be

presented in the following chapters are rather approaches than methods and most of

them are based on or expand on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001: 151), the general principles of CLT are

today widely accepted around the world.

At this point would be useful to clarify teaching practices in Czech

educational system. The teaching practices in the Czech Republic are based on the


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Ramcovy vzdelavaci program, which is a n obligatory governmental educational

framework according to which schools at particular levels (primary, secondary or

tertiary) create their own school educational programmes. The national framework

relates to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages 5, a

document issued by the Council of Europe, which specifies several key competences

which learners at a particular educational stage should possess. To our interest is the

communicative competence crucial. Van Ek (in Sheils, 2001: 1 2) summarises

components and sub-competencies which the communicative competence consists

of, e.g. linguistic, socio-linguistic, discourse, strategic, socio-cultural or social

competence. There are four major skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking)

which should be focused on to the approximately same extend to promote the

communicative competence of a good level.

There was also issued an Educational Framework for Language Schools with

Right of State Language Examination 6. It means that founder of such a language

school is the state and this school is obliged to keep the principles stated in this

document. Private language schools which do not possess this status do not have to

follow this educational framework and their administrators can decide on the

teaching methods and approaches according to their preferences. However, I believe

that most of the schools which provide the daily post-secondary studies will follow

the modern teaching trends and will prefer the CLT.

Some teaching methods widely used in the past focused only on one or two

skills (e.g. the grammar-translation method or the audio-lingual method), so they will

not be presented here. Although, some of their techniques or activities are of use in

CLT and related approaches, I consider the whole methods as such not appropriatefor the teaching/learning environment of the daily post-secondary classes at a

language school. The approaches which will be described are the following:

Communicative Language Teaching, the Natural Approach, Cooperative Language

Learning, Task-Based Language Teaching, Multiple Intelligences, the Lexical

Approach, the Eclectic Approach and Multisensory Approach.

5 [28] http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/CECR_EN.pdf6 [35] http://www.vuppraha.cz/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/RVPJS_vup_pv_050509.pdf
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2.2.2 Communicative Language Teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or the Communicative Approach

is also sometimes referred to as the notional-functional or functional approach .

These terms are based on writings of many British applied linguists, namely D. A.

Wilkins who analysed the communicative meanings that a language learner needs to

unders tand and express. (in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 154-155) According to

him, there are two types of meanings, i.e. notions which he describes as concepts of

time, sequence, quantity, location, etc. and communicative functions such as

requests, denials, offers or complaints. This functional and communicative potential

of language was not adequately addressed in the teaching methods used until the

1970s because the focus was rather on mastery of structures (grammar andvocabulary) than on communicative proficiency, so, there was a need for a change.

Cooperation between the Council of Europe and the International Association of

Applied Linguists gave rise to the above mentioned teaching recommendations and

descriptive documents such as the Common European Framework of Reference for

Languages. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 153-154)

As discussed above, to be communicatively competent involves knowledge ofthe target language forms, meanings and functions and their appropriate application

according to a particular social context (formal or informal, superordinate or

subordinate relationships, etc.). Students learn the target language through using it, in

other words they learn to communicate by communicating, even though their

knowledge is incomplete and they make errors because in this approach, errors are

viewed as something natural. Fluency is preferred to accuracy. Students have the

opportunity to express their individuality and views, and they feel secure because

they feel that they are learning something useful and they interact with other students

and the teacher. (Larsen-Freeman, 1986: 133, 135) From the previous information,

we can implicate several principles of the communicative approach, such the

communicative principle, the meaningfulness principle and the task principle

suggested by Johnson in Richards and Rodgers work (2001: 161). It means that in the

CLT are used activities which involve real communication, the language is authentic,

useful and makes sense to the learners and the language is used to complete


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meaningful tasks, which results in a product (e.g. a letter, a message, an instruction

or a picture drawn according to information gained through communication).

According to Richards and Rodgers (2001: 165) there is an unlimited range of

exercise types and activities. Activities compatible with CLT focus on tasks

involving information sharing, negotiation of meaning and interaction. Completely

new element occurred it the CLT and that is the element of doubt or in Larsen-

Freeman (1986: 132) words an information gap learners have to make predictions.

Littlewood (1981 in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 166) distinguishes functional

communication activities such as comparing sets of pictures and looking for their

similarities and differences, ordering a set of pictures, discovering missing features in

a picture, giving instructions to a student behind a screen on how to draw a picture or

following directions and social interaction activities such as conversation and

discussion, dialogues and role plays or improvisations and debates. Another type are

various jigsaw listening or reading activities which support the information gap

and according to Geddes and Sturtridge (1979 in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 165)

force learners to put together information from different resources.

In correspondence to the new types of activities, the learner and teacher roles

must have changed in comparison to more traditional teaching practices. Larsen-

Freeman (1986: 131) sees the teacher as a facilitator of students learning and

communication, which displays in many roles, e.g. a manager of classroom activities,

advisor or resource and co-communicator. Richards and Rodgers (2001: 167-8)

complete this list with the role of a needs analyst, motivator and encourager and a

counsellor, who gives feedback. As CLT is rather a learner centred approach and the

teacher is less dominant in the classroom, there are some interesting implications forthe students. They should be more responsible for their learning process and be

personally and actively involved in the activities because they have to cooperate with

the other students in pair work or small group work, so they should be ready to

contribute to successful completion of given tasks. They are also encouraged to take

risks, make guesses and learn from their errors.

The instructional materials can be considered to have the primary role of promoting communicative language use. They can be divided into three categories:


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text-based, task-based and authentic materials. Text-based materials could be visual

cues, taped cues, pictures and sentence fragments to initiate conversation or two texts

containing different information for pair work. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 169)

Although, nowadays many of the course books preferred by Czech teachers (e.g.

New Headway or New English File) are based on the communicative principles, so

that teachers do not have to create their own materials. However, teacher created

materials seem to be mostly warmly welcomed by the students. The next category is

task-based materials such as a variety of language games, role plays (e.g. interviewer

interviewee, doctor patient), cue cards or activity cards, scrambled sentences or

picture strip stories . The last category is authentic, from -life materials such as

signs, advertisements, newspaper and magazine articles, menus or timetables, live

radio or television broadcasts which Larsen-Freeman (1986: 136) recommends to

choose accordingly the lear ners level , however, as authentically as possible.

2.2.3 The Natural Approach

The Natural Approach (further on referred to as the NA) originated from

cooperation of two Americans, Tracy Terell, a teacher of Spanish, and Stephen

Krashen, an applied linguist. The theory and research are referred to as Krashens

language acquisition theory which distinguishes two ways, acquisition and learning ,

of developing competence in a second or foreign language.

Acquisition is the natural way, paralleling first language development in children.

Acquisition refers to an unconscious process that involves the naturalistic development of language

proficiency through understanding language and through using language for meaningful

communication. Learning , by contrast, refers to a process in which conscious rules about a language

are developed. It results in explicit knowledge about the forms of a language and the ability to

verbalize this knowledge. ... Learning, according to the theory, cannot lead to acquisition. (Richards

and Rodgers, 2001: 181)

In other words, they believe that conscious learning can only monitor or edit

the linguistic system which we previously acquired. Their hypotheses have these

implications for language learning: the learner has to have enough time to apply a

learned rule, the input (e.g. grammatical structures) must be presented in as much

comprehensible way and predictable order, important are visual aids and exposure to


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a wide range of vocabulary and last but not least a relaxed classroom atmosphere

should be created to lower students affective filter. Let us have a closer look at the

terms input and affective filter . They claim that input, which means the language

which the learner is exposed to, should be slightly beyond the learners current le vel

of competence (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 182) and it still will be comprehensible

because the learner will have to come out of their knowledge of the world,

experience, situation and context. I personally agree with this idea because I believe

that t asks slightly beyond students level can push them forward, however, they

should not be too difficult otherwise they would feel not competent enough and they

might resign and give up the task. On the other hand, when we consider the needs of

dyslexic students, who usually struggle even with the tasks of their level, the input

should match their level because they have to cope with their difficulties and it might

be a burden to them.

Another phenomenon which I find interesting within the NA is the

hypothesis of the affective filter (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 183) which discusses

learners emotional states or attitudes such as motivation, self -confidence and

anxiety, which strongly influence the learning process. Krashen and Terell compare

the affective filter in children and adolescents and conclude that e.g. fear or

embarrassment rise in early adolescence, which gives younger children an advantage

in second language acquisition. So, it implicates the role of the teacher in the NA as a

creator of positive friendly classroom atmosphere, provider of a comprehensible

input and materials based on students needs and interests. A significant part of the

NA is also the focus on students decision concerning the speaking skills.

Communication is ordered in three stages: the pre-production stage when learner

does not need to use the target language (they for instance act out physicalcommands or point to pictures), the early-production stage when they respond in

single words, short phrases or questions and the speech-emergent stage when they

involve themselves in role plays or participate in group problem solving tasks.

(Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 185-188) Errors are seen as signs of these naturalistic

processes. These developmental stages help to lower the affective filter which is

especially in dyslexic learners high. Based on the sources studied and observed

classroom behaviour, they usually feel anxious and inferior because of their learningdifficulties and this approach implicates something that should be goal of every


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teacher, namely that they should pay attention to their students feelings and that

minimal responses have their place in the communication.

We can assume that the Natural Approach is suitable rather for basic levels. It

was primarily designed to develop basic personal communication skills (e.g.

listening to announcements in public places or reading and writing personal letters)

and academic learning skills (e.g. listening to a lecture or taking notes in a class),

however, Krashen and Terell state that it would help beginners become intermediate

and that the course would vary according to the needs of the students. Richards and

Rodgers (2001: 190) sum up that originality of the NA lies not in the techniques that

it employs but in their use in a method that emphasizes comprehensible and

meaningful practice activities, rather than production of grammatically perfect

utterances and sentences .

2.2.4 Cooperative Language Learning

Cooperative Language Learning (CLL) is part of a more general instructional

approach also known as Collaborative Learning or it can also be related to the so

called peer -tutoring. It is a learner centred approach which uses cooperative

activities involving pairs and small groups (usually of four learners) in the classroom

and which promotes communicative interaction and cooperation rather than

competition among learners. It is seen as an extension of principles of

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and it should increase learners

motivation on one hand and on the other hand it should reduce their stress. (Richards

and Rodgers, 2001: 192-3) Stress is perceived as a great barrier especially in those

students with learning difficulties who do not experience success very often, so, it

can be assumed that this approach will contribute to reduce their anxiety and it will

engage them in classroom activities, although they might be behind their classmates.

The considerable advantage of CLL is that students act as resources for each other,

which requires a more active role in their learning. They are taught to plan, monitor

and evaluate their own learning, which is viewed as a compilation of lifelong

learning skills. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 199)


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It might seem that the teachers role in this approach is very easy because

students actually learn from each other, but there are many activities to be performed.

The teacher is primarily a facilitator of learning, who moves around the class helping

students by clarification, support, encouraging, giving feedback or providing

questions that challenge thinking. Naturally, the teacher has to plan and structure

tasks, assign the grouping and roles. It is recommended that it is the teacher who

selects students to make groups because he or she can create more heterogeneous

groups in the r espect of students past achievement or preferences and interests.

Johnson et al. (in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 196) describe three types of

cooperative learning groups. Firstly, they are formal cooperative learning groups

which last from one class to several weeks and are establish for a specific task.

Secondly, they are informal cooperative learning groups which last form a few

minutes to a class period, and thirdly, they are cooperative base groups which last for

a long term (usually a year) and their members give each other support,

encouragement and assistance to succeed academically. The latter grouping can be

considered as the most appropriate for low achievers. Although, assuming from my

observations, low achievers tend to get together because they might feel more secure

in such a grouping and the other students tend to work together or sometimes they

even object to cooperation with the low achievers.

Numerous activity types can be used with CLL. Students can work on the

same material where everyone should know the answer to a question and anyone can

be called to answer it. There occur jigsaw or information gap activities where each

group member receives a different piece of information or cooperative projects

which are based on discovery learning. It means that topics can be different for eachgroup. Students divide particular tasks within the group, research the information via

various resources (e.g. interviews or visual media), synthesize the information and

finally as a group present it to the whole class. Olsen and Kagan (in Richards and

Rodgers, 2001: 198) describe another typical example as a three-step interview : 1)

Students are in pairs, one is interviewer and the other is interviewee. 2) They reverse

roles. 3) Each shares with some other student what they have learnt during the two

interviews.


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It can be summed up that CLL objectives are to develop critical thinking

skills and communicative competence through socially structured interaction

activities and because there is not any particular form of syllabus, Richards and

Rodgers (2001: 195) suggest it to use in any type of courses when teaching content

classes, ESP, the four skills (listening, reading, writing and speaking) or grammar,

pronunciation, and vocabulary.

2.2.5 Task-Based Language Teaching

Tasks are considered to be the core units of planning and teaching in the

Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). Although definitions of a task vary in

TBLT, Richards and Rodgers (2001: 224) understand it as an activity or goal that is

carried out using language, such as finding a solution to a puzzle, reading a map and

giving directions, making a telephone call, writing a letter, or reading a set of

instructions and assembling a toy. Feez (1998 in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 224)

summarizes the key assumptions of task-based instruction. This approach focuses on

process rather than product, emphasizes communication and meaning conveyed in

purposeful activities and tasks which can be real life or can have a pedagogical

purpose, are included in a task-based syllabus and sequenced according to difficulty

which depends on the previous knowledge of the learner, the complexity of the task

or the language required to complete the task.

TBLT extends the Communicative Language Teaching principles in terms of

input and output. Whereas Krashen and Terells Natural Approach focused on the

importance of a comprehensible input, the supporters of TBLT argue that the

productive output is also necessary for adequate second language acquisition. They

also claim that task activity and achievement are motivational because they include

authentic language, physical activity, cooperation and learners can rely on their

previous experience. (Richard and Rodgers, 2001: 228-9)

The objectives of TBLT are rather determined by the specific needs of

learners because in literature are found mainly descriptions of examples of task-

based activities. As has already been stated in the introduction to this approach, thesyllabus specifies the real-world tasks (e.g. planning a vacation or application to a


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university) and pedagogical tasks (not necessarily reflecting the real world tasks),

because TBLT concerns rather with the process than with specific content and skills

that should be acquired. Pica, Kanagy, and Falodun (1993 in Richards and Rodgers,

2001: 234) classify the following task techniques: jigsaw tasks (learners combine

different parts of information to form a whole), information-gap tasks (learners have

different information and they have to negotiate and find out the partners

information), problem-solving tasks (they are given a problem and some information

and have to reach a solution), decision-making tasks (they are given a problem for

which there is a number of solutions and they have to choose one) and opinion

exchange tasks (a discussion in which the agreement does not have to be reached).

Concerning the roles of learner and teacher, some overlap with the general

roles in Communicative Language Teaching. However, Richards and Rodgers (2001:

235-6) add the group participant, monitor, risk-taker and innovator to the roles of a

learner and they assume the teacher to be a selector and sequencer of tasks, who also

prepares learners for the task and who raises their consciousness by focusing

attention with pre-task activities.

Typical classroom procedure is divided into three phases: pre-task, task cycle

and language focus. The task cycle is further divided into performing the task itself,

planning to report on its completion and outcome, and a brief report of the task. The

language structures are not only analysed but also practiced in the language focus

phase. When preparing classroom activities, teachers can make use of pedagogic

materials, however, authentic materials such as newspapers, television or newly the

Internet are preferred. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 237-40)

2.2.6 Multiple Intelligences

Jessica Spohn and Katherine Hogan (1995: 12-22), American teachers in

adult literacy courses, are convinced that learning styles and Multiple Intelligences

(MI) instruments are useful tools for discovering how people learn best because they

show us peoples strengths and weakness , which enables more efficient teaching. I

agree with their statement that it is important for a teacher to understand how theirstudents learn and consequen tly to incorporate students learning styles into their


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teaching styles. This is why I have decided to investigate the MI and I believe that

tests and activities of this learner-centred approach would be useful in dealing with

both the intact learners as well as the learners with learning difficulties because it

could help them to find out about their strengths and uniqueness and it could provide

a valuable instrument of applying learning strategies in real world environments not

necessarily connected with language.

MI is based on the work of Howard Gardner published in 1993, who stated

that traditional IQ (Intelligent Quotient) tests measure only the logic and language

skills and believed that there are other equally important types of intelligence. He

argued that all people possess these intelligences but they differ in their strengths and

combinations. Gardner also believes that teaching and learning are most successful

when these learner differences are acknowledged, analyzed for particular groups of

learners and accommodated in teaching. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 115)

Gardner describes eight types of intelligences:

1. Linguistic: the ability to use language in special and creative ways

2. Logical/mathematical : the ability to think rationally

3. Spatial: the ability to form mental models of the world4. Musical: a good ear for music

5. Bodily/kinesthetic: having a well-coordinated body

6. Interpersonal: the ability to be able to work well with people

7. Intrapersonal: the ability to understand oneself and apply ones tal ent

successfully

8. Naturalist: the ability to understand and organize patterns of nature

(Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 116)

There are suggested suitable activities for every type of intelligence. Authors

usually present them in tables, so I have decided to choose some typical techniques

from Christisons (1997) taxonomy and they are following:

Linguistic I.: worksheets, student speeches, storytelling, memorizing, word games, journal

keeping, listening to audio books, etc.

Logical/Mathematical I.: scientific demonstrations, logic problems and puzzles, creating

codes, logical-sequential presentation of subject matter, etc.


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Spatial I.: charts, maps, videos, slides, graphic organizers, visualization, mind maps, art and

other pictures, student drawings, etc.

Bodily/Kinaesthetic I.: cooking and other mess activities, role plays, field trips, mime, etc.

Musical I.: playing recorded or live music, singing, mood music, Jazz Chants, etc.

Interpersonal I.: cooperative groups, peer teaching, group brainstorming, board games, pairwork, etc.

Intrapersonal I.: independent work, individualized projects, checklists, personal journal

keeping, reflective learning, interest centres, etc.

(Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 121)

To illustrate the tools of MI approach, there is enclosed an example of a MI

test (see Appendix 2) which can be used by teachers to identify their students

intelligences. Although the test was made rather for upper primary or lowersecondary learners, it can be used with some modifications or further clarification of

the statements also with older learners. The results of a survey made in two groups of

post-secondary learners at a language school presented in Appendix 3 were very

useful for my further teaching practice.

2.2.7 Lexical Approach

The origin of the Lexical Approach (LA) is also dated to 1990s and is

connected with Michael Lewis. He believed that the building blocks of language

learning and communication are not grammar, functions, notions, or some other unit

of planning and teaching but lexis , that is, words and word combinations. (Richards

and Rodgers, 2001: 132) The language is in the LA therefore seen as the

grammaticalised lexis in which collocations play a very important role. Richards and

Rodgers (2001: 133) give examples of collocation of verbs with nouns: do my

hair/the cooking/my work and make my bed/a promise/coffee. Collocation can be

therefore defined as a combination of words that are used together regularly. Not

only collocations but also other lexical units such as idioms (dead drunk), similes (as

cool as a cucumber), conversation gambits (Guess what!) and chunks (Pleased to

meet you.) are considered to play a central role in LA learning and communication.

To cover all these learners in the roles of discoverers and data analysts can use

computer databases of language corpora such as for instance the British National


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Corpus, which contains more than 300 million words. (Richards and Rodgers, 2001:

133-6)

We can assume that this approach is suitable rather for advanced learners

whose four macro-skills (reading, listening, writing and speaking) are at good level

and who need to expand their vocabulary and also that translation into or from

mother tongue will be inevitable here. However, if the tasks were differentiated and

learners were given assignments according to their skills, or if cooperative

techniques were chosen, I believe that this approach could work well also with

dyslexic learners.

2.2.8 Eclectic Approach

The Eclectic Approach (EA) can be considered to be the most current

approach because it is actually a blend of techniques and activities used in many of

the above described approaches. It is believed that as teachers will gain experience

and knowledge they will develop their personal approach to teaching which will

reflect their beliefs, values and principles and they should be able to be flexible and

creative to exploit different approaches or methods to suit their current teaching

environment. Bailey (1996 in Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 251) suggests principles

that teachers should keep in mind when making decisions about the classroom

practices. They should:

engage all learners,

make learners the focus of the lesson,

provide maximum opportunities for student participation,

develop learner responsibility,

be tolerant of learn ers mistakes,

develop learners confidence,

teach learning strategies,

respond to learners difficulties and build on them,

maximize student-to-student activities,

promote cooperation among learners,

practice both accuracy and fluency,

address learners n eeds and interests.


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To ensure that lessons will not become a haphazard collection of activities

from different methods and approaches, Jeremy Harmer (2007: 51) presents the

theory of a principled eclecticism which suggests three elements (ESA) for

successful language learning. These elements are Engage, Study and Activate.

Engage means that learners should be motivated in the lessons, e.g. by relating the

topics to their own lives, making predictions, games, music, stimulating pictures,

discussions or dramatic stories, which will help them to proceed to the study phase.

In the study phase, learners focus on the construction of something, they think about

language construction. There can be used techniques of controlled practice or

discovery activities, or they can discuss how successful was their language

construction. In the activation phase, learners can use the language as freely and

communicatively as they can. They should use all and any language they know and

which might be appropriate for a given context, which allows them to try out real

language use with little or no restriction. A bridge between the study and activation

phases creates personalisation, which is a type of activity where learners use the

studied language to talk about themselves.

The three elements of ESA do not have to occur always in the same order.

Depending on the objectives of the lesson, they can occur for instance in the

sequence of straight arrows ESA, boomerang EAS(A) or in the sequence of

patchwork EAASASEA. (Harmer, 2 007: 51-7) Although many teachers have to

use textbooks required by school administrators, which is also the case of the

participants in my practical research, supporters of the eclectic approach stress that it

is important to manipulate or re-order the activities in the book so that the three ESA

elements are evident in appropriate sequences.

2.2.9 Multisensory Learning Approach

Multisensory Structured Learning Approach (MSLA) is used to provide re-

education or remedial help when teaching reading and spelling in mother tongue to

learners with dyslexia. In the course of time, it has become accepted also in teaching

foreign languages. It has developed from a multisensory teaching programme known

as the Orton-Gillingham instructional approach, which was published in 1997 andwas successfully used with students with mother tongue learning problems. Later, in


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1999, Elke Schneider added the metacognitive element to the MSLA and introduced

the Multisensory Structured Metacognitive Learning (MSML) because she felt that

training of metacognitive skills (thinking about how we learn) is necessary for

students with language learning difficulties. (Nijakowska, 2010: 123-4)

As the name of the approach implies, multisensory approach means learning

via many senses. It means that teachers should employ as many out of the five

human senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) as possible in the classroom

activities. According to Nijakowska (2010: 124-5) the general features of methods

beneficial to dyslexic learners when dealing with reading and spelling should be

multisensory, direct and explicit (rules do not have to be guessed or inferred by

students), systematic, highly structured, sequential, cumulative, synthetic, phonetic,

phonics-driven and, finally, giving sufficient practice and consolidation, and

preferably conducted in small groups or individually. In other words, she does not

favour the currently preferred communicative language teaching approaches in which

students should discover meanings from the context and in which the direct teaching

of phoneme-grapheme and grammatical rules system is rather suppressed and in

which fluency seems to prevail over accuracy. Additionally, she is convinced that

learners with weak mother tongue skills would benefit from contrasting their mother

tongue and the target language in the areas of phonology and grammar. She also

emphasizes that we cannot expect learners with weak phonological processing skills

to succeed in FL learning which starts out with listening to a foreign language and

assumes students to learn to comprehend and speak a foreign language similar to the

way they acquired their native language (Nijakowska, 2010: 127). However, she

admits particular success of natural approaches in teaching these learners.

To sum up this part of the thesis, we have discussed several various teaching

approaches most of which are based on principles of communicative language

teaching. Currently, there are methodology trends leading towards the informed

eclecticism and to modification of teaching practices to the needs of individual

learners. A reasonable use of the mother tongue, reasonable use of authentic

materials or differentiating between fluency focused and accuracy focused activities

are considered common practices in modern methodology (Hanusova, 2009). Fromthe difficulties of dyslexic learners described in the early chapters of this work can be


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concluded that some approaches are less appropriate than others and, therefore, there

can be drawn particular principles or intervention which are believed to adjust the

teaching and learning process in a generally dyslexia-friendly way. However, it

should be emphasized that teachers should always discuss the needs with the

particular student depending on the severity of the problems to ensure

individualization.

2.3 Interventions in TEFL to dyslexic learners

Some language school teachers are absolutely free in the choice of teaching

materials but usually they have to use a particular textbook as the basis

complemented by additional materials of their choice in the daily post-secondary

courses. The choice of methodology depends on the beliefs of school administrators

but presumably it is the teachers decision in most cases. However, t hrowing out the

textbook or abandoning proven theories and approaches to teach dyslexic students

would be impractical, costly and even impossible in many situations.

As it is recognized that there is no one way of teaching dyslexic students, the

regular classroom teachers can make particular accommodations and modify the

environment and tasks to meet the dyslexic individuals needs. There are two terms

which should be kept in mind: accommodation and modification . Accommodation

refers to a strategy that changes the academic environment and, therefore, enables

students to demonstrate what they know. It usually does not alter the information or

amount of information that the student must learn. Examples of common

accommodations may include untimed test or extra time on assignments. On the

other hand, a modification strategy changes the work itself, makes it different than

other students and encourages success by this way. An example of modification may

be giving an oral report when other students are required to prepare a written report.

As accommodations and modifications often overlap and many teachers and

specialists interchange the terms, so, both the terms are often referred to as

interventions (Wadlington, 1996). Various interventions can be applied in the areas

of general instruction, study and organizational skills, language arts and test-taking.


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In the inclusive FL classroom it should be the responsibility of the teacher to adapt

and alter the curriculum for different skill levels. The teacher should appropriately

differentiate the curriculum to make it relevant for the dyslexic as well as gifted

students. The necessary steps a teacher can take list authors Schneider and Crombie

(2003: 16 19) as following: use of multisensory techniques, structured information,

explicitness, over-learning, metacognition, slowed pace of presentation, personal

motivation and coping with short concentration span. All these phenomena will be

dealt with closer in the following paragraphs.

2.3.1 Multisensory techniques

These techniques actively involve students in using their stronger channels of

learning. The more channels (senses) are involved, the more efficient is the

memorisation and retrieval of information. Most helpful seem to be kinaesthetic-

tactile activities because these activate strong learning channels in dyslexic students.

The motto is Hear it, see it, say it, write it, act it out and make learning as active as

possible (Schneider and Crombie, 2003).

A good bodily/kinaesthetic example is presented in Reid and Green (2007)

for the engagement phase pre-task activity of brainstorming. They suggest to get

away from regular lined piece of paper, let the students stand and throw a small ball

(hacky sack or something that does not bounce) back and forth, and express their

ideas to a given topic. They also recommend introduci ng a new reading task in a

manner that is consistent with the young persons learning preferences (2007: 57). If

the teacher begins with suitable pre-reading tasks, it will help to prevent or minimize

the possibility of students failure and loss of moti vation. For a visual/kinaesthetic

learner, new words should be introduced visually first, they suggest e.g. picture

clues, drawings and then practice the position of mouth and tongue when producing

particular sounds with simultaneously tracing the word with fingers in the air or on

students desks before writing it down in the vocabulary book.

When dealing with a longer text, for instance a story, sequencing can be

difficult for dyslexic learners. It would be better to a graphic organizer (Cogan andFlecker, 2004, Scraper and Scraper, 2006) and draw the sequence using stick figures.


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The technique could be as following: teacher draws a row of boxes (the number

depends on the number of the parts of the story eventually could reach 8-10),

students can draw a picture in each box (optionally add page numbers). Optionally,

teacher can provide a prompt in each box to show the kind of information that is

required (the name of the main character or a key word).

Graphic organizers can also be a useful tool when summarizing ideas and

structuring a written piece of work, for instance a letter or an essay. They can serve

as a visual support of organizing a text into the appropriate paragraphs. Another

example of a visual organization could be mind maps or spidergrams which can be

used for many purposes such as making notes from a textbook or a lesson, for

summarizing, for essay writing or for revision (Cogan and Flecker, 2004).

Visualization could be supported also by the use of colours. Not only

highlighters in working with the text but also colour coded cards as moveable

devices can be used to represent sentence constituents or parts of speech when

explaining a grammatical structure or to represent typical expressions or phrases

when structuring a piece of writing (Schneider and Crombie, 2003, Nijakowska,

2010, Reid and Green, 2007).

With regard to the auditory perception deficits, Reid and Green (2007)

suggest to combine listening and reading by providing text and tape. They find it

particularly useful as dyslexic learners need to see and hear the word. It means that

when using a textbook recording to practice listening for details, e.g. while listening

for the second time, the dyslexic learners should be allowed to read the tape script.

Another useful device based on connection of the auditory and aural channels could be represented by audio books which are works recorded on a tape or CD

accompanying the book. To increase interest in the English speaking countries and

simultaneously to stimulate the ear-eye connection, films or videos preferably with

English subtitles can be shown in the class (Schneider and Crombie, 2003, Reid and

Green, 2007).


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2.3.2 Structured information

The multisensory structured input should be divided into logically sequenced

(from easier to more difficult) chunks which can be organized in teacher prepared

handouts. They can contain well-organized notes, summaries, crucial points and

conclusions of the lesson. Nijakowska (2010) finds them an invaluable help for

students with dyslexia as regards later study and consolidation of the material. She

and also other authors such as Reid and Green (2004) consider the format of such

handouts which should be organized in a visually appealing manner in a dyslexia-

friendly font ( Comic Sans , Century Gothic or Times New Roman), spaced

enough and which should not be crowded with information in a rather unclear and

chaotic way.

It is also advisable to prepare a lesson plan including clear sets of instructions

and modelled responses preceding particular tasks and give it to dyslexic students at

the beginning of the lesson to enable them to concentrate better on the content of the

lesson (Nijakowska 2010).

2.3.3 Over-learning

Not only Schneider and Crombie (2003) but also many other educational

specialists, Gavin Reid (2007) for instance, mention that students should receive

enough opportunities for over-learning through variety of activities. However, over-

learning is time-consuming and it always requires patience on both the sides because

there is a danger of boredom and decreasing motivation. To prevent this, repetition

should be done in various contexts and it should involve the use of moveableteaching aids. Interactive language games, use of colour coding of various linguistics

concepts or the use of mnemonics are assumed to reach automaticity. Mnemonic aids

enable learners to remember and retrieve information through a unique, sometimes

humorous or nonsense associations. Examples of a mnemonic aid could be

following:

a sentence with a picture and demonstration to illustrate its meaning

I keep my elb ow on a yell ow pill ow under the wind ow to


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remember the spelling choice -ow for the // sound (Nijakowska,

2010).

SVOMPT - an acronym which stands for the usual word order of a

subject, verb, object, manner, place and time in an English reporting

sentence. This mnemonic is my own example learnt at grammar

school.

The amount of over-learning needed to reach automaticity in a task depends

on the severity of the language processing difficulty in the specific area (e.g.

letter/sound, semantics, grammar, etc.).

2.3.4 Metacognition

One of the competences which students should acquire throughout the

educational process is the competence for learning, in other words to become an

independent life-long learner. Dyslexic student can not succeed without the

component of metacognition, i.e. thinking about the learning process itself.

Schneider and Crombie (2003) emphasize that they should be encouraged to find out

about the language structures, why certain phenomena are used the way they are,

how they can self-correct and monitor their own learning process. Students should be

able to use some metacognitive strategies such as mnemonics, checklists,

verbalization of the rules, thought provoking questions, react to teachers gestures or

mime used for particular phenomena, etc. Examples of metacognitive mnemonics

and strategies could be as following:

REMEMBER for essay writing where

R: Read questions carefully.

E: Eliminate difficult questions and go for easy ones first.

M: Mark down keywords what you want to say.

B: Breathe to give your brain/thinking machine oxygen.

E: Estimate time you can take to answer question.

R: Respond and recheck response.

Thought provoking questions: Why would you spell it this way?

Where would you insert this word? Can you see the pattern? What areyou thinking?


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2.3.5 Slowed pace of presentation

Language material should be according to Schneider and Crombie (2003) presented at a slower pace and in logical chunks so that students are able to cope

with and comprehend it. It is not advisable to deal with too much information too

quickly not only with the dyslexic students but also with the other students. They

need to master each concept a reasonable extent before the next step of learning is

presented.

Concerning the reading skills, Reid and Green (2007) suggest to increase

reading fluency by asking learners to read a page at their own pace, re-read it again

and underline all the key words and, finally, re-read only those key words. Then the

material should be discussed as soon as possible because of the deficits of short-term

memory in dyslexic students. Presumably from my own experience, for a learner of a

FL is, especially at lower levels, usually a problem to identify the key words because

of the amount of unknown vocabulary. Reid and Green see a possible solution in the

technique of skimming in which learners are given less time than they actually need

to read the text. This way they will have to concentrate only on the crucial words.

2.3.6 Personal motivation

Motivation is considered to be the key factor in the whole learning process.

Simultaneously, it is in many cases very difficult, especially for a novice teacher, to

motivate students who are not interested in any offered topic or who have resigned

on working hard because of many failures they had experienced before. Schneider

and Crombie (2003) suggest engaging students by activating their personal strengths

and interests and by giving them individual space (e.g. permission to walk around at

the back of the room if they become overactive). To make students feel accepted as a

whole person and motivated to continue through the difficult parts of FL learning

Schneider and Crombie (2003) apply the concept of not calling on students to

produce an oral response without any preparation. They allow them to give a signal

a speech voucher that they do not want to speak. Additionally, Nijakowska (2010)


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would release dyslexic students from reading aloud in front of the whole class.

Instead, they can provide the teacher with a recording of their reading aloud at home.

Personal involvement in students own learning is essential to experience

success. Among important elements which should be taken into account are the

students learning styles (visual, auditory, bodily-kinaesthetic, tactile, see also the

Multiple Intelligences, p.23) in relation to their linguistic strengths and weaknesses

caused by dyslexia and the teachers general teaching style. These two factors should

be in harmony. The knowledge of individual students s trengths and weaknesses as

well as their interests are considered to be crucial for the teachers ability to adapt to

meet the needs of the young people. In other words, it is necessary for the teachers to

be flexible and open to accommodating students with dyslexia in the classroom and

to be prepared to adapt to the learning styles of the students. However, not all

teachers would be willing to realize that having inappropriate or unsuitable teaching

styles can be in sharp contrast with dyslexic students who usually prefer the

visual/tactile style (Schneider and Crombie 2003, Reid and Green 2007, Hanusova,

2009).

To ensure appropriateness and suitability of chosen methods, Schneider and

Crombie (2003) see the starting point in an instant assessment of the impact on the

dyslexic students several times during the lesson. If the teacher diagnoses the

remaining difficulties and teaches facing towards them in a direct, explicit way, this

will give the students the feeling that their slower processing abilities are respected.

2.3.7 Coping with short concentration span

According to Schneider and Crombies experience, a dyslexic student is able

to fully concentrate in a five to ten-minute block. It means that these students lose

their attention more quickly than the rest of the class and they get tired easily. So, if

the classroom situation does not involve a concrete kinaesthetic-tactile activity,

Schneider and Crombie (2003) suggest agreeing with the dyslexic student on a quick

activity which would help to recharge the lost concentration, e.g. squeezing a stress

ball, a short walk around relaxing area of the classroom or simply going to the

bathroom for a quick two or three-minute break.


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2.3.8 Testing and examination interventions

To receive the highest possible satisfactory results in tests or examinations,students with learning difficulties should receive an explicit instruction in test-

preparation strategies such as multisensory structured studying, mnemonic devices,

mock examinations or time management. However, the most important seem to be

the proper test-taking modifications. Schneider and Crombie (2003) suggest for

instance extended time limit, providing a separate, distraction-free room, tests

completed via computer or, depending on severity of the particular processing

difficulty, providing a scribe or a reader.

With regard to the particular test tasks, cloze-tests or matching tasks should

be avoided because dyslexic learners rely heavily on context clues. During oral

examinations it is recommended to post the questions in advance to avoid immediate

forced responses, which gives them enough time to retrieve the information from

memory. As far as the correction of writings, teachers should focus on students

ideas and arguments, use of vocabulary or application of grammar rules. Spelling

mistakes should be given lower importance and they should be corrected by teachers

writing the particular misspelled word rather than simply marking them down.

One of the crucial roles in the learning process plays frequent feedback on

students progress. According to Nijakowska (2003: 152) is especially relevant to

compare what the learners have already learn with their own previous achievements

rather than with the attainments of their peers.

Considering the standardized written or oral examinations provided by

educational organizations to prove officially the achieved level of a foreign language,

particular accommodations could be provided. Students of the daily post-secondary

courses at the surveyed language school have the opportunity to systematically

prepare for and sit the City and Guilds IESOL or ISESOL examinations. City and

Guilds ensures equal opportunities to candidates with various special requirements

including specific learning difficulties via accommodations and arrangements


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specified in Access to Assessment and Qualifications 7 document. Based on

specialists assessment of the adjustments required, they allow for instance extended

time, a scribe or a reader, use of bilingual dictionaries and other accommodations.

2.4 Summary of the theoretical part

The theoretical part of the thesis was divided in three chapters. Firstly, the

term specific learning difficulties were clarified. It was focused on dyslexia where

the definition, history and nature o

Diploma Thesis - Teaching Apporoaches of Language School Teachers in Relation to Dyslexic Learners

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