Dyslexic students: challenges they face and how they can be circumvented

 

I have already discussed issues dyslexic students have with learning a foreign language. My experience tells me that all the special provisions various course writers claim they make in their books are not always to the point or, to put it in a different way, they do not deal with some serious difficulties dyslexic students face. An example is the inclusion of exercises in most workbooks where the students are required to underline the correct answer between two or three. Normally the two answers are italicised presumably to highlight them. I am not sure whether dyslexia experts or course writers or anyone in the ESL world are aware of the fact that some dyslexic students cannot tell italics from upright. When I first realised this, I was truly shocked. Imagine how many times a teacher (myself included) has asked students to do the impossible or has assessed them on the basis of their choices when really they had no inkling of what they had to choose between. One of my young dyslexic students pretended not to understand what was required of her in the exercise as she knew I would read out the sentences so she would know what the words in italics were. Another student of mine keeps asking me in disbelief whether I can see the italics apparently hoping for an answer in the negative!

Let me come to the issue of language exams. I will focus on what allowances the Cambridge exam makers for officially diagnosed dyslexic candidates. The main concession Cambridge makes is allowing extra time (25%). I will contest the effectiveness of this by dwelling on the difficulties inherent in dyslexia. Cambridge exams, like most other language exams, have a duration of about 4 or 5 hours depending on the level. Extending the exam time for dyslexic students is pointless for two main reasons. To begin with, dyslexic students become cloudy-headed if they have spent a long time trying to concentrate on a task. Therefore, extended time is not going to prove useful or yield any better results. Secondly, dyslexic people are not slow thinkers. On the contrary, in my experience their problem is trying and testing an amazing number of possible readings of a word they stumble upon without always getting it right. They fast forward several times per second considering and reconsidering plausible interpretations of the exam input.  This is exactly what eventually leads to fatigue or the inability to complete a test.

My suggestion is that dyslexic students should be given a shorter version of paper 1 and paper 3 (Use of English and Reading Comprehension) as well as Part 4 (Listening Test). You can still assess people’s ability if you test them on two shorter texts rather than three long ones – this is simply a suggestion, exam makers can figure out a reasonable length of input and number of questions. The same goes for listening comprehension. Again it is the volume of what they have to process that they find intimidating.

Regarding the writing paper, I feel that writing a paragraph rather than a longer text would allow them to focus on the essence and would dramatically minimise mistakes and inaccuracies resulting from trying to pull together all different strands into a harmonious composition. Dyslexic students have enough challenges on their plate as it is. What I mean is that organisation is one major stumbling block so demanding them to produce a minimum number of words when they can still communicate their thoughts and ideas in less space does not sound fair to me.

In a nutshell, adapt the exam content and format to dyslexic students’ needs rather than extending time on a test which is not planned around their needs.