Dyslexia and learning English as a foreign language: the phonological/orthographic teaching through the multisensory method.

Abstract

This project is based on my personal experience of being tutor of students with special needs and of all ages. However, in this paper I focus on dyslexic students of the Lower Secondary School in the process of learning English as a foreign language. Moreover, i attempt to present how the phonological/orthographic teaching can help pupils to progress in all other skills. In the first part I provide insight into learning disabilities, in particular into dyslexia and its connected difficulties from both a learning and a psychological perspective. Moreover, I will introduce a part dedicated to the Italian question regarding dyslexic students at school compared to UK and USA. In the second part i focus on the main problems a dyslexic student has to face with the Italian mother tongue in order to understand the learning obstacles which can influence the study of English as a foreign language, examined in depth in the fourth chapter. The third chapter deals with dyslexia from a psychological perspective, taking into account that students have to cope with high levels of anxiety and stress; for this reason it is pivotal to highlight how working on self-esteem can influence both the students’ motivation and the scholastic achievement. As a consequence, an early diagnosis appears to be significant in the process of language acquisition. Thus, the Educational Helper’s role becomes a key figure to support dyslexic students at home to find useful strategies with the aim of becoming independent learners. Finally, the research project of two case studies attempts to provide a future suggestion in teaching English as a foreign language to dyslexic students, that means concentrating on phonological/orthographic competences and words acquisition through the use of multisensory techniques.