Those who follow me on Twitter (if you don’t follow me, please do now) would know that I went to Kobe last weekend. I was privileged to be invited to attend a special event on teaching English to learners with dyslexia. I have done a little work with teaching English to students with special needs before, namely conducting listening tests to deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and one of my seminar students from 2016-2017 focused on dyslexia for her graduate thesis. But I have to admit that I am certainly in the dark for the most with this topic. Talking about the entire event would take up too much time, so I’ll just give a quick summary of a few ideas that the main speaker, Keiichi Takeda, talked about. I had seen Keiichi Takeda speak at a conference in Shimane last year. He spoke really well and I enjoyed his talk then and this time as well. He started by talking about a couple of famous people who have various degrees of dyslexia, before explaining different terminologies: Learning Disabilities, Learning Disorders, and in some parts of the US, Learning Differences. Personally, I like the "Learning Differences" idea; we all learn in different ways. We then saw a couple of different ways to experience how those with dyslexia see words written in books, etc. I'll quickly explain three. The second example given was something like this. To read this passage, you'll need to follow this code: ○ = e △ = a ▲ = t ▼ = s □ = p ◎ = h For m△ny □○o□le, ▲◎○ ▼unflow○r i▼ △ ▼ymbol of ▼umm○r. ▲◎○ir brig◎▲ y○llow color▼ m△k○ u▼ f○○l r○l△x○d on ◎o▲, ◎umid ▼umm○r d△y▼. △▲ ▲◎○ ○nd of ▼umm○r, you c△n coll○c▲ ▲◎○ ▼○○d▼ to □l△n▲ ▲◎○ n○x▲ y○△r, or ○△▲ ▲◎○m △▼ △ h○△l▲◎y ▼n△ck. The third example is a little rarer, but a situation where the letters on the page seem to move or disappear. Rather than trying to explain it, it might be easier to just watch a short video I have linked from YouTube. Here you go: Professor Takeda also talked about features of dyslexia among Japanese students, such as difficulties distinguishing between hiragana characters like ね and わ or perhaps ぬ and め. It goes without saying that kanji is even more challenging. The thing that is difficult for teachers, and what we really need to be aware of, is that dyslexia doesn't mean the child is less talented. We need to be aware that such children learn in different ways and having trouble reading doesn't mean they have to give up on their dreams. If anyone has read Malcolm Gladwell's book, David and Goliath (I will be using this book in my foreign cultures course next school year), you would have read about David Boies, the attorney who has dyslexia. I think that gives a pretty good example of someone who has managed to use what many people might see as a disadvantage or weakness as an advantage and strength. So, as I was listening to the talks at the event, as always, I was thinking about how mindsets fit into this. At first, I thought that mindsets wouldn't be helpful for considering the education of children with dyslexia. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that having a growth mindset is vital for those with dyslexia. Teachers need to educate such children with the growth mindset being the basis of their instruction. The growth mindset is more than just using a bit of elbow grease; it is about reflecting on how to do better and focus on the process rather than the person. Many children with dyslexia might become victims of the false growth mindset, in that they are told, "Just do your best!" However, as we learn with the false growth mindset, a true growth mindset isn't just about trying hard; it is about being prepared to fail, but then learning from your failures. It is about ignoring comparisons with others, and just looking at improving your own ability and being better than you were yesterday. There is still plenty for me to learn about this part of education. Thanks very much to the organizers and everyone involved with the event! So what do you think? Do you have much experience teaching children with dyslexia? Share your experience and ideas with a comment. Finally, I want to share a short film I saw about dyslexia a few years ago. Enjoy!
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AuthorI'm Adrian Leis, Associate Professor at a university in Sendai, Japan. I mainly teach and research second language pedagogy, motivation and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). |