An adapted method of learning English for students with dyslexia or reading difficulties

Abstract

Since February 2009, all mainstream public schools must integrate students with special needs into their structure, regardless of their specificities and level of disability. Schools, in turn, must ensure that these pupils are provided with optimal, equitable and appropriate learning conditions (Special Education Decree, February 2009). Current foreign language learning methods promote the use of functional communication methods, but these methods are not sufficient to properly integrate the complex orthographic and phonological rules of some languages (English). Students with dyslexia or reading difficulties need sequential, progressive and adapted learning of letter-sound associations (Costenaro, Daloiso and Favaro, 2014). In this project, we created a learning sequence focusing on sequential activities that promote the acquisition of complex letter-sound associations in English. The sequence was created and adapted based on the Sound Pathway 2 method, proposed by Costenaro, et al. (2014) and focuses on the learning of /θ/ and /ð/ sounds in English.