Dyslexia: the challenges and accomplishments in teaching English as a second language

Abstract

In the Spanish Educational System, the study of a second language is compulsory since Pre-School. Most schools in the country have English as the second language instructed among centres. Nevertheless, given the differences with their mother tongue, such as spelling and pronunciation, English can seem complex for students. Still, nothing compared to the difficulties faced by studies with dyslexia. According to the DSM-5-TR (2022), dyslexia is a learning disability characterised “by problems with accurate or fluent word recognition, poor decoding, and poor spelling abilities”. Consequently, teaching an L2 to those with difficulties with their L1 can become difficult for educators. The characteristics of the disability will help find better methods for students with dyslexia; in other words, studying the differences between people with dyslexia in Spanish and people with dyslexia in English will give us some insight into how the difficulties reflect so that we can assess them properly. Parallel to that, by looking at Spanish and British teaching approaches for children with dyslexia, we can see the student’s needs and the significant problems they face. Understanding the above is crucial to the paper’s central theme: teaching dyslexic children a second language. By studying the current methods used in Spain to teach English as a second language to children with dyslexia, we intend to show the advantages and disadvantages of each technique used nowadays and the challenges and accomplishments the students and educators could encounter in the process. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to show how dyslexia can affect the learning process not only in their mother tongue but also in a second language. In addition, we intend to illustrate how the structure of the Spanish Educational System and the currently available methods and strategies could imply challenges for children with dyslexia