Maya is doing her internship as a primary teacher in English as a Second Language. She is assigned to teach a number of different one-hour classes at different levels, comprising students from a variety of backgrounds. However, she is becoming increasingly frustrated in managing her classes. While most students are responsive with spoken exercises, some of her students have problems when it comes to practising reading and writing (R-W). Also, she had problems with controlling some classes: certain students tended to be disruptive, distracting fellow students and creating discipline issues.
When she analysed the problem, she found that those students with R-W difficulties generally either had disciplined problems or were often teased by the others. When she consulted with other teachers at her school, they seemed to think that it was her fault through not being strict enough in controlling the class. When she mentioned the problem to the children’s parents, they generally thought that it was because their offspring were lazy or stupid and/or being led astray or bullied by others. However Maya thought that these answers were too simplistic based on her observations of the pupils involved. In frustration, she went to consult her mentor in the local teacher-training college.
Questions:
Background Information
Literacy is of ever-increasing importance as societies evolve further into modern knowledge-based economies. This is not only because it is essential for many jobs but also because it is important for individuals to help them to advance themselves through life-long learning.
An emerging issue regarding the traditional teaching of literacy is the problem of dyslexia or reading disability: a condition where individuals may have a variety of different learning issues unrelated to their intelligence or whether they are hard-working.[1] Thus they often have skills in other areas such as creative thinking and problem-solving. It can be recognised by the difference between how a child would be expected to do and how they actually are performing in class.
The main characteristics are problems relating the spoken word to the written one in reading and spelling, due to differences in the functional organisation of areas of the brain that process language. This may be a result of primary genetic and/or secondary developmental (environmental risk) factors.[2] In more severe cases, other issues may include:[3]
Where most studied, it has been found to be a common problem: for example, about 5-10% of Americans,[4] and about 10% of those in the UK.[5] It is not clear whether dyslexia also exists in Cambodian or other cultures, at least with regard to their indigenous languages.[6] However it is likely to be relevant for the learning of second languages (most especially English).[7]
Dyslexia is an extreme example of the fact that everybody is different with regard to their optimal learning strategies. There is no cure: affected individuals require supplementary tutoring or a specialised education program,[8] together with adequate emotional support of the parents as well as teachers and others to counteract low self-esteem, for example.[9] Thus it is important to recognise the problem as early as possible in order to ensure that the child`s educational development is not set back and they are encouraged to reach their full potential. Furhtermore, frustration at their inability to learn and lack of self-confidence may mean that dyslexics are disruptive in class. Thus there is the need to be understanding and not condemn them as ´lazy´or ´stupd´.
https://padlet.com/andithorenson/eng37p49qdse3zhs
[1] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/symptoms/; https://www.medicinenet.com/dyslexia/article.htm
[2] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/symptoms/; https://www.medicinenet.com/dyslexia/article.htm; https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552
[3] https://www.readandspell.com/different-types-of-dyslexia; https://www.medicinenet.com/dyslexia/article.htm
[4] https://www.webmd.com/children/understanding-dyslexia-basics
[5] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/symptoms/
[6] The fact that it is the result of atypical processing by the brain suggests that it is at least a latent problem.
[7] English is an example of an ‘opaque’ language: like e.g. French, there is no consistent way in which a word is written and how it is pronounced, in contrast to e.g. German, Spanish or Italian, which are ‘transparent’ because a new word can be easily pronounced based on its spelling alone: https://dyslexiaida.org/the-myths-and-truths-of-dyslexia/
[8] Tailored to individuals’ particular needs, given the range of severities amongst dyslexics.
[9] e.g. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/dyslexia/living-with/; https://www.learningenglish-cambodia.com/DYSLEXIA.php