Learning a foreign language is a skill many are keen to relish. There are after all many benefits to language learning. Your newfound skills are able to take you all over the globe and unlock further opportunities, particularly on the jobs market.
Here at Lingoo, our hosts and teachers welcome learners of all ages and abilities. Nothing should hold students back from achieving their language goals. Yet, it is important to acknowledge that some may find learning another language more difficult than others. Dyslexia is a learning difficulty that is common in the UK and the rest of the world.
According to the British Dyslexia Association (BDA), 10% of the UK population are dyslexic. Depending on its severity, dyslexia can result in a number of issues. But this shouldn’t deter people with dyslexia from learning another language. While dyslexia is a lifelong condition that presents various challenges, with the right help those with dyslexia can succeed with language learning.
Here, we share our top tips for teaching language students with dyslexia, so they can challenge themselves and feel empowered in the process.
Understand dyslexia and its symptoms
Dyslexia may affect certain abilities used for learning, like reading, writing and spelling, but unlike some other learning disabilities, dyslexia does not impact intelligence. Support is required to ensure the challenges that dyslexia presents can be overcome and language learning goals achieved.
As a host or teacher, understanding dyslexia and how it can affect the learning process is a great starting point. An individual with dyslexia may read and write particularly slowly, confuse the order of letters, and have inconsistent spelling. Planning and organisational skills may also be affected due to their dyslexia.
Get to know your students
Every individual is different, which makes understanding how severe their dyslexia is vital. Milder forms of dyslexia present subtle symptoms. The condition may have not even been diagnosed as a result.
Get to know your students and their parents to become better informed on their condition and how the signs of dyslexia show themselves in their everyday life as well as within the learning environment. With this knowledge, you’ll be better informed to adapt your teaching strategies and personalise language lessons.
Use dyslexia to your advantage
Despite there being many symptoms connected to dyslexia, most dyslexic people excel in other areas, such as problem solving and creative thinking. These skills can be used to make the language learning process more engaging.
Here Martin Bloomfield, ex-language teacher and expert trainer in dyslexia awareness, shares his tips for helping younger learners with dyslexia:
“Phonemic awareness – breaking words down into the constituent sounds – is hugely helpful for dyslexic students… Students can struggle with learning facts – the brain of the dyslexic needs to see the connections to make sense of it all. So when we teach in this way, we are teaching structure and connections, and students have a more profound understanding than simply remembering how a word is spelt or pronounced.”
A multi-sensory learning experience can be beneficial to students with dyslexia. Colours, rhymes, games, role play, singing, flashcards, videos and animations, and group activities are all great options for engaging dyslexic students in foreign language.
People with dyslexia tend to understand information when it’s communicated verbally, rather than written down, so never underestimate the power of the spoken word.
These activities for shy guests should also be explored by hosts and teachers looking to create a dyslexia-friendly learning environment.
Celebrate the benefits of language learning
Learning another language can be particularly empowering, especially when students face the additional challenges associated with dyslexia. By learning a new language, horizons can be broadened and awareness of other cultures can be developed. It can also help students understand the nuances of their own language better.
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