Dyslexia and modern languages

Dyslexia and Modern Language teaching


Problems with visual and/or auditory sensations




As dyslexic children may experience problems with visual and/or auditory sensations the use of more of the child’s senses should be involved when learning, especially touch and movement. This is called multisensory teaching.



The basic principle is: MAKE LEARNING TASKS PRACTICAL!



Ideas for the teaching of modern languages



- The spelling of words could be practised by writing them in the air in large letters (pupils could employ this method when trying to learn the vocabulary at home).



- New vocabulary:



1. should be introduced with flashcards. Pupils to chant the new words along!



2. could be taught by handing around the objects in question (fruit, clothes…). The pupils say the words out loud when they have these objects in their hand.



- Pupils could draw pictures next to the new words in their books rather than writing out the English translation. (Translations, however, will have to be written out for words on the Dolch list.)



Color coding



- Color coding! In German there are three genders: Feminine, masculine and neuter, and we encourage the girls to learn the new words with their article. When we copy these words down we write the masculine words in blue, the feminine words in red and the neuter words in green. I have a set of homemade flash cards on red, blue and green card according to the gender of the word.



- If it is too difficult for the dyslexic pupil to copy from the board, vocabulary sheets should be provided, using the color coding discussed above.



- Words/phrases and grammatical concepts should be taught in context. We teach the grammar point of accusative or dative after ‘in’ (in German) with the cartoon of Ralf the robber (Zick-Zack 2): He goes into the supermarket (accusative), but is inside the supermarket (dative) to do his evil deed! Even years later pupils will remember this grammar point, even if they are not quite sure anymore how it works!



Acronyms



- Acronyms, rhymes and silly sentences can be taught in order to help pupils to remember rules. MR M(e)N ® endings of articles in German in the dative masculine feminine neuter plural deM deR deM deN Rule to help remember how to pronounce ei / ie in German: “When e and i go out walking the second one does the talking.”



Opportunities for acting and miming



- Ideal is the fact that modern language learning provides us with a lot of opportunity for acting and miming.



- The material needs to be revised often in as many different ways as possible in order to avoid the pupils getting bored. Role-plays, Miming games, and other non-competitive games like matching games, puzzles, guessing games, spelling/number bingo are especially helpful.



Off-white paper for worksheets



- If possible cream, pale yellow, green or blue paper should be used for handouts and worksheets as some dyslexic children find black on white difficult to read. When setting exercises on worksheets non-serif fonts should be used, and the font size should not be smaller than 14.



- Clear illustrations are helpful, as text only is the most difficult medium for dyslexic children.



Carola Robinson-Tait

July 2003