Dyslexia is one of the most common learning differences, yet many teachers feel uncertain about how to support students who have it—especially in language classes. Since we teach a wide range of students, many of whom benefit from accommodations or interventions, it’s important to understand how to make our instruction accessible. This is even more critical when students have legal documents such as 504 plans or IEPs that outline their specific needs.
To help us better support students with dyslexia, we invited reading specialist Kelly Brandon to attend a workshop and share her insights. Kelly is a public school teacher, private tutor, and dyslexia specialist who works with students to build their reading skills. Kelly and Director of Training Elicia Cárdenas are co-authoring this post to share what they’ve learned.
What is dyslexia?
According to the International Dyslexia Association:
“Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.”
How can we support language students with dyslexia?
There is a common fear from families and caregivers that the reading and writing components of written languages will make language class impossible. Since most states have a requirement for world languages, what is a student with dyslexia going to do?
First, let us confidently affirm: Dyslexia does not limit a student’s ability to acquire language. Students with dyslexia belong in language classes!
Commonly, counselors and administrators suggest that dyslexic students take American Sign Language (ASL), as there is no reading or writing associated with that language. Their suggestion is that, whenever possible, dyslexic students should choose ASL over other languages, such as German or Mandarin. This is a great solution, and also one that supports ASL users all over the US. However, not every school is fortunate enough to have an ASL program. Fortunately, dyslexic students can succeed in any language class, even if there are reading and writing components.
A focus on acquisition supports students with dyslexia
Luckily, strategies and mindsets typically seen in acquisition driven instruction can strongly support students with dyslexia. If we focus on acquisition over learning and connecting with students through communicative interactions, we can create classrooms where all learners are capable of success.
Kelly and Elicia sat down to identify things that support dyslexic learners, including modifications and accommodations for assessment. We believe that these strategies and accommodations will make any language class a place in which students with dyslexia can feel competent and confident… and experience success developing proficiency in a new language.
Approach and big picture planning
Supporting students with dyslexia is more than just implementing a to-do list of beneficial tasks. Supporting students with diverse learning needs well requires some shifts in our overall approach to how we plan instruction and set goals for our students.
Acquisition over learning
Acquiring language and learning language are different, and setting our sights on acquisition over approach will help students with dyslexia. Let’s talk about what that means!
Many language teachers learned a language by memorizing vocabulary words and verb forms, filling in the blanks, and memorizing rules. The course goals usually placed an emphasis on accuracy in terms of form, spelling, and more. There were always right and wrong answers, and the only way to get the right answer was to study and memorize the rules and word lists. However, for dyslexic students (like Elicia!), this emphasis on memorization, written recall, and accuracy makes it very difficult to succeed in language class– much less acquire language.
Acquired language isn’t language that we have studied, drilled, or memorized. It’s language that builds up in our minds as our brains process language that comes in through reading, viewing, or listening. Language acquisition is an unconscious process, and it is something that every student is capable of–and in fact has already done! You can read more about acquisition versus learning here.
The cool thing about acquired language is that the language in your head that lets you communicate fluidly, concentrating on your message and not necessarily on the grammar forms that you are using. Acquired language develops in the part of your brain that just knows what word and syntax to use without thinking too much about it. Language acquisition is an unconscious process, and it is something that every student is capable of–and in fact has already done! You can read more about acquisition versus learning here.
When teachers focus on acquisition, they are not focused on the accuracy of communication. Instead, they are focused on the success of the communication. Another way of saying this is that they are not focused on what students are doing wrong or what students can’t do. They are focused on what students can do with the language.
Successful communication includes interpretation- and teachers work hard to make sure that students understand what they are hearing (or viewing for American Sign Language) and what they are reading. They celebrate when students indicate understanding (which is key to communication) and let the target language build slowly, recognizing that language acquisition takes time. Instead of forcing students to practice with language beyond their abilities, teachers accept one word answers, gestures, and wait patiently for productive language to show up. That is not to say that students (dyslexic and otherwise) don’t produce- they do! It’s more about letting students build up enough language in their head that they can produce without focusing on rules.
Setting Reasonable goals
We say it all the time: accuracy is simply one component of proficiency, and it develops over time. Just like we cannot expect a Novice language learner to be able to communicate about EVERY topic, we cannot expect a Novice language learner to communicate with PERFECT accuracy. It’s simply not in line with what we know about how linguistic proficiency develops.
For that reason, we use ACTFL’s performance descriptors to help us set reasonable goals for what our students’ communication should look like in terms of Content, Function, Accuracy, and Text Type. When we look at these performance descriptors, we see that it is EXPECTED that students will be making errors in communication, in all modes, as they move upward through the proficiency scale.
You probably had a language teacher that took off points for errors on your writing assessments. (You may be a language teacher who does this now!) It is important we say that demanding accuracy in this way is not in line with a proficiency-based approach to language teaching. Perfect accuracy–even within a particular skill, such as present tense verb conjugation or noun/adjective agreement–is not a reasonable goal. We know that all language learners make so-called ‘errors’ in communication. In fact, the presence of those errors is actually a marker, or indicator, of their level of proficiency. This is true for students with dyslexia and those without!
This might be a hard idea to try on, but we invite you to consider that it is illogical to punish students (by reducing their grades) for making errors that we know are appropriate for their level of proficiency. Likewise, dedicating large amounts of class time to honing the ability to produce language accurately might not be the best use of your time with students. Especially for dyslexic learners, a greater emphasis on accurate language production will be demotivating and perhaps even discouraging, because the goal is unachievable. Perfect communication is not a reasonable goal for language learners in typical school programs.
When teachers set reasonable goals for accuracy, all students benefit–and dyslexic students are no exception. Instead of a student’s success being attached to their ability to spell, correctly place accents, and write verb endings correctly; their success is attached to their ability to understand and be understood. Celebrating what students CAN do in terms of communication offers a broad path to success, one that creates space for students with dyslexia to achieve in language classes.
Going deep, not broad
As students develop the ability to communicate in a new language, they need robust exposure to linguistic forms (words, patterns, word parts, etc.) that they understand. Students need to encounter words over and over again, in different contexts, over time.
Many language course syllabi are not set up to provide this kind of repeated exposure over time that leads to acquisition. Grammar concepts and vocabulary word lists are often presented, practiced, assessed, and left behind when the class moves on to a new unit. The class technically covers many words and many grammar constructions over the course of the year, but attrition is high.
In contrast, acquisition-focused language classes use a “deep not broad” approach. The focus words of instruction in early language classes are high frequency vocabulary words that lend themselves to repetition in a wide variety of contexts. This makes it easy to provide the kind of repeated exposure over time that all of our brains need for acquisition. When teachers plan this repeated exposure to words from unit to unit, it is called “spiraling”.
Furthermore, the approach emphasizes staying with a smaller set of new words for a longer period of time, using the words over and over again in a variety of contexts before introducing a new set of focus words.
While typical students may need several exposures to new words in order to add them to their internal vocabulary, dyslexic students may need significantly more repetitions for those words to be added to their mental representation (Kilpatrick, D. A. (2015)). This spiraled, slowed down approach to vocabulary exposure is beneficial for students with dyslexia because it normalizes coming back to the same words again and again, helping students create their mental representation of language.
Teacher actions that support association
Setting goals that are achievable for all learners and planning how to approach instruction is an important first step. The next step is important, too!
There are many teaching strategies and activities that will support students with dyslexia in language classes on a daily basis, particularly by helping them to create mental connections. The formal term for creating mental connections is “association”. Dyslexic students are likely to struggle with association, which could be things like naming familiar objects, developing sound to letter correspondences, and more. For that reason, they will benefit from a variety of strategies that help them to create these connections; strategies that help with association.
Many of the association strategies are considered active engagement strategies. They are strategies that invite students to become actively involved in what is happening in class, not just passively “sitting and getting.” According to Kelly, a class that is optimized for students with dyslexia would have “almost no ‘sit here and read this and write a response quietly” activities. Instead, class time would be filled with active engagement strategies that help with association; many of which are woven into the fabric of acquisition driven classrooms!
Gestures
Assigning gestures to words is a fairly typical strategy that is associated with Total Physical Response (TPR). We often ask students to mentally match a word and its meaning with a gesture, and then we use that gesture each time students hear the word. For example, we might say that “tiene” means “has,” and every time we say, “tiene,” we hold our hands together in front of us, as if holding an invisible object. This gesture strategy helps build associations between word, meaning, and movement. Plus, it allows students to move with focus during class time! All students benefit from these association supports and the opportunity to move.
Processing Questions
Processing questions are questions that help students understand something that they have heard, read, or viewed. When a teacher is using the target language in class, it might feel natural to communicate in the same way they do in their primary language: say something, say another thing, then another, then another. Instead, teachers can follow up any given statement with one or more processing questions before moving on to say something new.
Here is what that looks like in practice:
In this example, the question, “Did I go skiing or sledding?” is a processing question. It’s a question about the statement the teacher just made (“Last weekend, I went sledding!,” and it gives students time, repeated exposure, and a small piece of information to focus on. All of these things will support students in making better sense of the message. And, because comprehension is critical for language to be acquired, it therefore serves to support language acquisition.
In terms of active engagement, processing questions also give students an active job; they’re no longer expected to just passively listen while the teacher talks. Teachers will usually set the expectation that students respond to questions that are asked to the class. Therefore, if they don’t respond, it’s a good indication that they didn’t understand the question. In that way, it’s a valuable form of formative assessment.
Still another benefit of processing questions is that students have an opportunity to practice retrieving information (linking meaning to words) over and over again. This retrieval strategy is incredibly important for creating neural connections. It helps with association!
Point and pause
One of our favorite, most impactful strategies for acquisition driven instruction is the use of pointing and pausing. We say a word or sentence, then point at an image or the meaning of the word (written in the primary shared language, which is usually English). As we point at the meaning or picture, we pause to give students time to connect the word with its meaning. This Point and Pause strategy helps students understand the spoken (or signed) language by giving them processing time and by reinforcing those form-meaning links. Association, association, association!
We can level up and support dyslexic students even more by pairing images with the word meaning in English as often as possible. Instead of pointing to the word meaning or an image, point to both! Because the written word in English might not–or not yet–carry meaning for dyslexic students, pointing to the image alongside the word meaning will help.
Turn and talk
Turn and talk, turn and confirm, and turn and tell your partner are all strategies that encourage active engagement. They support students in understanding and contributing to class conversations without forcing them to produce or answer on the spot. Even a task as simple as, “Turn to your neighbor and say what this sentence means in English” provides valuable comprehension and association support to all students.
Choral Response
Finally, asking students to respond chorally is great support for dyslexic students. Choral response gives students the opportunity to hear the language and rehearse production in low-stress, low-stakes situations. Choral response isn’t a true speaking activity because it doesn’t require students to make meaning, but it feels like a speaking activity to many students. This opportunity to try pronouncing words in the new language, with the aural support of the teacher and without being the center of attention, is helpful for students with dyslexia.
Assessing language performance in dyslexic learners
At The Comprehensible Classroom, we suggest that teachers try to make their gradebooks as standards-based as possible, even when you are using a 0-100% scale (or A-B-C-D-F grade scheme). This means separating out the skills of interpretation and production and assessing students on those skills. This approach to gradebook setup makes it simple to provide accommodations for dyslexic students that are still in line with national standards.
We suggest that teachers assess the interpretive skills of listening and reading comprehension and the productive skills of writing and speaking (although we suggest waiting awhile before introducing speaking assessments). Read more about gradebook setups and assessment recommendations here.
Accommodations for interpretive assessments
For dyslexic students, “reading with your ears” is the best possible modification for any reading that is involved with interpretive assessment. Listening is an interpretive skill, and reading in another language may not be in a dyslexic student’s skill set. Furthermore, writing may or may not be a developed skill for the dyslexic students in your classes.
It is appropriate to accommodate these students by allowing them to:
- listen to reading assessments,
- having comprehension questions read to them (on listening or reading assessments), and
- allowing them to speak or draw (instead of write) their answers to questions.
If you are reading this and thinking “Yeah, that’s great but how can I do that with no aid, no support, and a class of 35 kids?,” we see you. It is challenging. If your students have IEP accommodations, this is a great opportunity to liaise with their team and discuss how you can work together to facilitate that particular modification. Some text to speech apps and other technology solutions may support reading in your classroom’s language. Check with the special education team for ideas and resources!
Accommodations for productive assessments
Dyslexia impacts a student’s writing development, and every student with dyslexia will have developed the writing skill to different degrees. Whether or not your dyslexic students need accommodations for writing assessments will depend on what their writing skill looks like. If the student has an IEP, it will likely state exactly what the accommodation should look like. If there is no IEP requirement, you can choose to provide accommodations anyway!
Accommodating students for productive assessments might look like letting them speak their response instead of writing it. While speaking does tend to develop later in the context of students in language classes, and we suggest that we don’t need to assess novices in speaking for typical students, there is some evidence that dyslexic students have become so adept at navigating school with their differing abilities that they will be successful in speaking assessments when other students may not. You might want to consider what “meeting the standard” looks like with productive spoken language, though, using rubrics adapted from ACTFL’s Performance Descriptors. It might look different than written production, and that’s something that we would expect! Consider whether it would be appropriate to pair a “speak instead of write” accommodation with a lowered performance target for that skill.
Dyslexic students belong in language classes.
Dyslexic students, just like all students, are capable of acquiring new languages. With thoughtful supports and a focus on acquisition, we can allow them to experience the success of which we know they are capable.
Kelly Brandon is a public school teacher, paraeducator, and private tutor supporting students with a focus on supporting students with dyslexia. She lives in Bellingham, WA and is currently a student in the MSE Literacy program at University of Central Arkansas with a Dyslexia Endorsement.
Elicia Cárdenas is the Director of Training at The Comprehensible Classroom.
