Helping Learners with Dyslexia Read in English

Abstract

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty which resists conventional teaching methods. The phonological
deficit hypothesis of dyslexia determines the present day focus on phonics targeting the primary area of
difficulties experienced by learners with dyslexia – decoding. Phonological instruction, however, needs to
be accompanied by the development of comprehension skills and presented within a rich language
environment. Verbal memory and processing difficulties, typically associated with dyslexia, as well as
other frequently co-occurring disorders require the adoption of a number of additional strategies for the
teaching of reading to learners with dyslexia. The paper identifies a number of them: multi-sensory
approaches, systematic (structured, cumulative and sequential) instruction, over-learning, reinforcement
and metacognition. It recognizes the need of time, task and materials differentiation. The choice of
particular teaching methods should take into account both the learner’s weaknesses and strengths. Such
individually adapted teaching makes the successful inclusion of learners with dyslexia possible in the
mainstream classroom.