IN THE CLASSROOM
various neuro-cognitive areas, including
Learning
disability 3
Lesley Lanir summarises some of the problems
learners face.
M
y previous articles (ETp
Issues 67 and 68)
established that over 20
per cent of our English
students have learning difficulties, and
that any problems that arise while they
are acquiring their first language are
transferred to second language
acquisition. In addition, it was
emphasised that attention is a critical
factor involved in information
processing and proper storage in the
long-term memory.
The main aim of this article is to
give an overview of the principal
difficulties found in our classrooms in
the areas of receptive and productive
language. Although reading, writing,
vocabulary and grammar are mentioned
briefly, they require deeper, more
extensive explanations, which will be
given in separate articles.
The challenges of
language
Although a whole spectrum of learning
disabilities exists, if language difficulties
are the primary problem of our
students, then studying the English
language becomes especially demanding.
It has an extensive sound system, close
to 100 spelling patterns and their
exceptions, numerous tenses and a long
list of irregular verbs. All these
characteristics, and more, can prove
challenging for our struggling learners.
Take Tony, for example, who is 11.
When reading anything that contains
new or unfamiliar vocabulary, he slows
down and resorts to decoding to try to
make out the words. In the end, he
30 • Issue 69 July 2010 • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • www.etprofessional.com •
and produce language is influenced by
doesn’t understand what he is reading
and gives up.
Or 14-year-old Nicole, who reads
well and seems to understand the
overall picture. However, she fails
reading comprehension quizzes because
she cannot answer the questions.
In the same group, Danny needs to
have explanations repeated and is unable
to follow through multi-step instructions
of any type. In addition, it takes him
ages to copy from the board and even
though he repeatedly tries to memorise
vocabulary lists, he still cannot
remember the words and their meanings.
And finally, there is 16-year-old
Yasmin, who performs well on grammar
and vocabulary tests and multiple-
choice questions; however, she avoids
participating in discussions. When called
upon, her speech is choppy; she mixes
up words and sometimes blanks out.
The above examples represent a few
of the many different types of language
learning disabilities, ranging from
problems with reading to difficulties in
processing information or translating
thoughts into spoken and written
language.
The demands of
language
Both receptive and productive language
abilities involve activating multiple
linguistic levels, including language sounds
(phonology), word parts (morphology),
word meanings (semantics), sentence
word order (syntax) and paragraph and
passage organisation (discourse).
In addition to these linguistic
factors, our students’ ability to process
attention, long-term and working
memory, graphomotor skills and
sequential ordering abilities. The latter
has great impact on language
production and comprehension since
language is arranged in a specific
sequence that facilitates understanding.
Besides all of the above, on top of
specific language disorders, students
may suffer from information-processing
deficits and be unable to keep up with
the pace of the class while listening,
reading, speaking or writing.
Receptive language
Listening
Some students have poor sustained
listening skills, possibly due to one of, or
a combination of, the following: weak
attention controls, limitations in working
memory, or poor verbal or sequential
memory. These deficiencies can bring
about reduced concentration in verbal
settings and an inability to remember
information presented orally. Thus, class
members with this disorder will perform
badly in most listening activities and
will have trouble following directions.
Classroom strategies
● Break verbal information or
instructions into chunks.
● Establish eye contact.
● Slow down and repeat directions.
● Provide printouts and/or visuals.
● If listening comprehension exercises
are used, allow plenty of time for the
students to familiarise themselves
with the questions, and break the
task down into manageable parts.
For example, after playing each
paragraph, pause and get them to
answer the corresponding questions.
Reading
To read, we must convert visual symbols
into words, and words into meaning.
This complex task can be divided into
word decoding and comprehension.
Decoding
Decoding is the ability to read single
words in isolation. In order to do this,
students must be aware that language is
composed of individual speech sounds,
or phonemes, which are represented by
letter symbols or graphemes. Connecting
sounds to letters is the first step in the
reading process. Students begin to
understand ‘the alphabetic principle’
once they realise that words are formed
when a number of sounds and their
corresponding letters are strung together.
This is a known as ‘cracking the code’.
Students who find learning to
decode problematic have trouble
identifying words that rhyme and
blending, segmenting and manipulating
syllables or sounds.
Other symptoms of weak readers
are difficulties sounding out words and
recognising words out of context;
confusion between letters and their
representative sounds; reading at an
unusually slow rate and ignoring
punctuation marks.
All these inconsistencies are based
upon inadequate phonological perception
and phonological awareness – the keys to
efficient decoding and fluent reading.
Classroom strategies
● Explicitly teach how letters and
letter combinations correspond to
their speech sounds.
● Practise ‘sight words’, words taught
as whole units because they are
frequent, have irregular spellings or
cannot be decoded, eg their, the,
because.
Comprehension
Skilled readers construct meaning by
combining fluent and accurate word
decoding with prior knowledge and
experience. Coordinating the bottom-up
and top-down approaches during
reading involves attention, memory,
language and higher-order thinking
skills. If efficient decoding skills are not
acquired, reading will be hesitant and
laborious, and effort will be focused on
decoding and not comprehending.
Even if their reading is fairly fluent,
some students cannot think about ideas
or information while they are reading.
In addition, they cannot grasp the
meaning and forget what they have read
even before they reach the end of a
sentence. Others appear to get through
the text but do not seem able to
remember any details.
Weak attention controls can cause
such problems, but so can limitations in
temporary storage space in the short-
term and working memory. Further
reasons may be inadequate processing
of linguistic data and unsuccessful
retrieval of information from the long-
term memory.
Classroom strategies
● Introduce new words and important
concepts before reading, and
provide a glossary next to each
paragraph.
● Use frequent questions focusing on
main ideas that will help the
students construct meaning from a
passage.
Productive language
In addition to the apparently passive
receptive language skills, students need
verbal and written communication
proficiency. This depends upon the
ability to access ideas and skills using
interaction between attention, long-term
and working memory, language, spatial
and sequential ordering, and more.
Students need to recall information for
classroom activities and tests fairly
automatically.
Productive language deficiencies can
be seen in students who seem to ‘blank
out’ during tests, writing tasks or if
asked to do oral work. These students
most likely have problems accessing and
activating language knowledge stored in
their long-term memory and are unable
to hold verbal information in their
working memory while communicating
their ideas.
Because of this, many students
prefer writing assignments to oral work
because written work allows them more
time to translate their thoughts into
words and sentences; however, for some,
all types of language production may
prove difficult.
Speaking
During oral tasks, class members with
productive language problems will avoid
participating and, if they do contribute,
will have poor articulation or will speak
hesitantly. They may repeat themselves,
employ unnecessary words or
circumlocutions and use only simple,
weakly-structured sentences.
Classroom strategies
● Don’t call on these students to
speak without prior notice.
● Give them preparation time in
advance to rehearse presentations
on subjects of interest to them.
● Allow them to use PowerPoint or
prompt cards.
• www.etprofessional.com • ENGLISH TEACHING professional • Issue 69 July 2010 •
Writing
Writing is the most complicated language
skill that a student has to perform. It
involves all levels of linguistic skills,
together with a large number of neuro-
cognitive functions, which include at least
seven different kinds of memory recall.
Consequently, writing disorders have
many sources, ranging from graphomotor
and visual–spatial difficulties that cause
improper pencil grip, poor letter
formation, illegible handwriting and poor
planning to underdeveloped neuro-
linguistic functioning that results in the
inability to remember and retrieve letters,
spelling errors, poor vocabulary and the
inability to grasp and apply grammar
rules.
Other probable causes of below-
standard writing are weak attention
controls and underdeveloped
organisation and planning skills, which
result in delays in starting writing
assignments, inconsistencies in the
legibility of handwriting, careless errors
and poorly-planned written work.
Classroom strategies
● Write in stages over time:
brainstorm, organise ideas, draft
ideas, revise, correct spelling and
grammar, final draft.
● Provide templates and models of
completed written assignments in
order to give an idea of how to
organise an essay and how the
finished product should look.
夝夝夝
Unfortunately, although the difficulties
mentioned here exist in our classrooms,
it is almost impossible to develop
individual lesson plans. Therefore,
teachers have to be eclectic and design
lessons to include as many different
ingredients as possible in order to cater
for all learners. Although this may be
time-consuming and it is not the perfect
solution, hopefully it will be rewarding
if learning occurs. ETp
Lesley Lanir is a
freelance writer, lecturer
and teacher trainer who
has been involved in
teaching English for over
15 years. She specialises
in learning disabilities
and foreign language
learning. She has a BA in
English and Education,
CTEFLA/RSA and an MA
in Learning Disabilities.
lesleylanir@gmail.com
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