Dyslexia and ELT: How to help young learners in the classroom

Joanna Wiseman
A child sat at a desk with a pen in hand, looking up at their teacher and smiling

When you’re teaching English to young learners, you might find that there are a few students in your class who are struggling. But sometimes it can be hard to tell why. Is it because their language level is low? Or are they finding classroom work difficult because of a general cognitive difference, like dyslexia?

How to help young dyslexic learners in the classroom
Play
Privacy and cookies

By watching, you agree app can share your viewership data for marketing and analytics for one year, revocable by deleting your cookies.

So how can you improve your understanding of dyslexia? And how can you adapt your teaching methods to soften the difficulties often faced by students with dyslexia?

How does dyslexia manifest itself in young learners?

Students often struggle with spelling, pronunciation and reading comprehension when they are learning English as a second language. It can be difficult for teachers to discern whether these problems are simply down to a low level of English, or if they are related to a cognitive disorder like dyslexia. So how can we tell?

There are some clear indicators:

  • When written work is of a lower level than speaking ability
  • Difficulty remembering sequences: days of the week, for example
  • Missing out or adding words when reading aloud

And there can be behavioral signs too. If you have a student who consistently employs work avoidance tactics like asking to go to the bathroom, or looking for a pen, this might be a signal that they are struggling in the classroom as a result of dyslexia or another neurodiversity.

The biggest signal of dyslexia is a clear difference between intelligence and written output. If you have a student that performs well in speaking tasks and listening, but their reading level is disproportionately low and their written work doesn’t reflect their language skills, then it could be indicative of dyslexia.

There is often little support available in an ELT context, but there are some easy-to-implement changes which can make a big difference to your students’ performance and results.

The classroom environment

The first step is making sure that your classroom is dyslexia-friendly. Teachers should ask themselves the following questions:

  • How well-lit is the room?
  • How organized is the room?
  • Is it obvious where you get certain information from?
  • Are keywords and vocabulary up on the walls?
  • Are lines of sight clear?

The second step to consider is how we ask students to work:

By playing to the dyslexic strengths within a team, it helps that student get the recognition for their skills and allows their peers to support them with the more standard tasks that can cause difficulty.

Marking and assessment

It can be difficult to make changes to a standardized system. The traditional method of grading students is by output. But output grading, ie. grading the work that students produce, comes with problems.

If you grade by output, students will stop trying once they’ve achieved the level they need to pass, and the dyslexic students who are struggling will get frustrated and give up. Consider grading by input instead, where you assess the thought process behind the work and the time and effort involved.

Even if your Director of Studies doesn’t support a change to the assessment system, you can still include some unofficial input grading in your classroom which will motivate all your students, not just the students with dyslexia.

The science of dyslexia

It’s a truism to say that knowledge is power, yet the more you know about dyslexia as a teacher, the more you can do to mitigate its effects on your students’ learning.

There are a number of theories of what dyslexia is: there’s the hemispheric balance theory, and the temporal processing theory. These theories understand dyslexia as a developmental issue within the brain. Once we see dyslexia in this way, , and how teachers can soften the difficulties that their students have.

For young learners, try focusing on phonetical awareness. Phonemic awareness - breaking words down into the constituent sounds - is hugely helpful for dyslexic students.

Teachers should help students work on this by testing them in class. You can use games like top trumps, flashcards, matching games and mnemonics to do so.

For example, using flashcards, you can test your students' awareness of sounds: "does hippo sound like happy?" or "does cough sound like through?"

A multi-sensory approach is often useful, involving colors, rhythms, writing out big words. These are the basic principles of the Orton-Gillingham method, an approach which breaks language down into blocks so that dyslexic students can learn through building these linguistic blocks back up again.

Students can struggle with learning facts - the brain of the dyslexic needs to see the connections to make sense of it all. So when we teach in this way, we are teaching structure and connections, and students have a more profound understanding than simply remembering how a word is spelt or pronounced.

Be mindful of your language

Children and young people absorb our prejudices and stereotypes, even if they are unconscious ones. Its incredibly important to be mindful of the language you use when dealing with dyslexic students.

Avoid language such as ‘learning difficulties’, which immediately accuses people with dyslexia of struggling, of difficulty, when in fact everything is difficult if the teaching isn’t appropriate. Also try not to use medical language - a ‘cure for dyslexia’, where there is no cure, or a ‘diagnosis of dyslexia’. Don’t use the phrase ‘despite your dyslexia’.

Dyslexia is best understood as a cognitive difference that should be celebrated. With the right support, the talents and abilities of dyslexic children can really shine in the classroom - something that every teacher should be aiming for.

Further reading/resources

If you’d like to learn more about the Orton-Gillingham approach, they have a lot of on their website. For more general information about dyslexia, check out and for older teenage learners there is .

You can also download this practical guide to supporting dyslexic students in the foreign language classroom

More blogs from app

  • Older Woman with glasses sitting at a laptop

    12 tips for training older teachers in technology

    By app Languages

    An assumption persists in the educational community that more mature teachers are much more difficult and reluctant to be trained on the effective use of educational technology. To some degree, I think this assumption has been built on by the digital native vs digital immigrant myth. But as someone who has trained teachers of all ages all over the world, I would say that, from my own experience, this hasn’t been the case.

    What I have found to be the case is that more mature teachers are:

    • less likely to be lured by the shiny hardware and the seemingly wonderful claims made to go along with it.
    • more critical and skeptical about the way technology is used in the classroom.
    • less confident when using various apps and websites and less likely to explore the different features.
    • more easily discouraged by failures.
    • less familiar with various tools, applications and services that have become part of everyday life for younger users.
    • more likely to be able to see through “technology for technology’s sake” classroom applications.

    So how should trainers approach the challenges of working with these teachers? Here are a few tips from my own experience of training older teachers to use technology.

    Be sure of your ground pedagogically

    So many edtech trainers are great with technology, but much less versed in educational theory and pedagogy. More mature teachers are more likely to have a more robust theoretical understanding, so be prepared to back up your ideas with sound pedagogical insights and try to relate your training back to theories of learning and pedagogical approaches. 

    Make sure training is hands-on

    Running through a list of tools and ideas in a presentation may have some value, but it doesn’t come anywhere close to the impact of giving teachers hands-on experience and the chance to actually work with the tech to create something. 

    Give solid examples of what you have done

    Being able to speak from experience about how you have used tech with your own students will have far more impact than theoretical applications of “You could do blah blah blah with your students.” Sharing anecdotes of how you have used technology in your classes, the challenges you have faced and how you have overcome or even been overcome by them can really lend credibility to your training. 

    Manage expectations

    A positive attitude is great, but be also prepared to point out weaknesses, and potential pitfalls and talk about your own failures. This might help your trainees avoid the same mistakes and stop them from becoming disillusioned. 

    Make time to experiment and explore

    Don’t be tempted to cram in as many tools, techniques and activities as possible. Incorporate project time into your training so that teachers have the chance to go away and explore the things that interest them most and get their own perspective on how they can use them with students. 

    Back up technical training

    Learning to use new tools is getting easier all the time, especially on mobile, but it’s still relatively easy for teachers to forget which button to press or which link to follow. So back up any demonstrations with an illustrated step-by-step guide or a video tutorial that teachers can return to later. 

    Make their lives easier

    Using technologies that can make what they already do a bit easier or a bit quicker is a great way to start. For example, I have a link to a tool that really quickly creates a . Sharing tools like this that start from what teachers already do can really help to get them on your side. 

    Do things that can’t be done

    One of the most common remarks made by more mature teachers about technology is: “Well, that’s fine, but you can do that without tech by …” If you can show examples of technology use that go beyond what is already possible in the classroom, then you are much more likely to get capture their enthusiasm.One example of this is the use of collaborative writing tools likeand its ability to track, record and show how students constructed text.

    Solve classroom problems

    Being able to spot a genuine classroom problem and show how technology can solve it can be very persuasive. One example of this is gist reading which can be very challenging to teach because students tend to ignore time limits. Cue Prompterscan give teachers control of the text and push students to gist read at the speed the teacher chooses. Problem solved. 

    Plan with long-term and short-term goals

    However inspiring your training session is, and however short or long it is, you should ensure that teachers leave it with a plan.  are great if you have time to work on them with the teachers. If you don’t have time to get them to create individual SMART plans, at least get them to think about the first step or the first technology application they will try in their classroom and what they will do with it. 

    Tech can be implemented in CPD

    One of the reasons many mature teachers feel less confident with tech is because they often only use it in the classroom. Showing how technology can become part of their own self-guided CPD and professional practice, and helping them to build their PLN can energize their technology use and make their development much more autonomous and long-lasting. 

    Make sure everything works

    I can’t emphasize this enough. Make sure you have updated all your plugins, browser versions, etc., and check the network and connectivity and make sure everything runs smoothly. Nothing puts teachers off more quickly than seeing the trainer fail.

    Having read this list of tips you are likely to think: “But all technology training should be like that!” Yes, you are right it should, but the truth is we are more likely to be able to get away with lower standards when working with teachers who are already more enthusiastic about tech. So the next time you walk into a training room and see some older teachers there, don’t groan with disappointment, but welcome the opportunity to test your skills and understanding with the most critical audience. If you can send them away motivated to use technology, then you know you are on the right track. 

  • A group of children looking engaged on a task whist their teacher is sat near them

    3 opportunities for using mediation with young learners

    By Tim Goodier

    Mediation in the CEFR

    The addition of ‘can do’ descriptors for mediation in the CEFR Companion Volume is certainly generating a lot of discussion. The CEFR levels A1 to C2 are a reference point to organise learning, teaching and assessment, and they are used in primary and secondary programs worldwide. Teachers of young learners aligning their courses to the CEFR may wonder if they should therefore be ‘teaching’ mediation as a standard to follow. Is this really the case? And what might ‘teaching’ mediation mean?

    This short answer is that this is not the case – the CEFR is a reference work, not a curriculum. So the ‘can do’ statements for each level are an optional resource to use selectively as we see fit. This is particularly true for young learners, where ‘can do’ statements may be selected, adapted and simplified in a way that is accessible and meaningful to them. This approach is demonstrated in the many European Language Portfolios (ELPs) for young learners that were validated by the Council of Europe following the launch of the CEFR and ELP. 

    So let’s recap what is meant by mediation in the CEFR. The new scales deal with three main areas:  

    • Mediating a text: taking things you have understood and communicating them in your own words to help others understand.
    • Mediating concepts: collaborating with others to talk through ideas and solutions and reach new conclusions. 
    • Mediating communication: supporting the acceptance of different cultural viewpoints.

    Focusing on mediation with young learners

    Mediation activities may involve aspects of cognitive demand, general social competencies and literacy development that are too challenging for a given target age group or level. These factors need to be carefully considered when designing tasks. However, with the proper guidance it is possible that young learners can engage in mediation activities in a simple way appropriate to age, ability and context. of the potential relevance of the new descriptors to age groups 7 to 10 and 11 to 15.

    Opportunities for mediation in the young learner classroom

    It’s fair to say that opportunities for mediation activities already regularly occur in the communicative young learner classroom. These can be identified and enhanced if we want to develop this area.  

    1. Collaboration 

    Many young learner courses adopt an enquiry-based learning approach, guiding learners to collaborate on tasks and reach conclusions through creative thinking. The CEFR provides ‘can do’ statements for collaborating in a group starting at A1: 

    • Can invite others’ contributions to very simple tasks using short, simple phrases.
    • Can indicate that he/she understands and ask whether others understand.
    • Can express an idea with very simple words and ask what others think.

    Young learners at this level can build a basic repertoire of simple ‘collaborative behaviors’ with keywords and phrases connected to visual prompts e.g. posters. A routine can be set up before pair and share tasks to practice short phrases for asking what someone thinks, showing understanding, or saying you don’t understand. This can also include paralanguage, modeled by the teacher, for showing interest and offering someone else the turn to speak. 

    It is important for young learners to be clear about what is expected of them and what will happen next, so such routines can effectively scaffold collaborative enquiry-based learning tasks. 

    2. Communication 

    ‘Can do’ statements for mediating communication, such as facilitating pluricultural space, can orient objectives for learners themselves to foster understanding between different cultures. Again young learners can develop their behaviors for welcoming, listening and indicating understanding with the help of visual prompts, stories and role-model characters.

    3. Discussion of texts  

    Young learners also spend a lot of time mediating texts because they enjoy talking about stories they have listened to, watched or read. Although there is only one statement for expressing a personal response to creative texts at A1: ‘Can use simple words and phrases to say how a work made him/her feel’, this can inspire a more conscious focus on classroom phases to talk about responses to texts and stories, and equipping learners with keywords and phrases to express their reactions. In this way, as they progress towards A2 young learners can develop the confidence to talk about different aspects of the story in their own words, such as characters and their feelings. 

    Moving forward

    Clearly, it is not obligatory to focus on mediation activities with young learners – but the ‘can do’ statements are an interesting area to consider and reflect upon. There are some obvious parallels between mediation activities and 21st century skills or soft communication skills, and the CEFR ‘can do’ statements can help formulate manageable communicative learning objectives in this area. This, in turn, can inspire and orient classroom routines and tasks which prepare learners to be active communicators and social agents in the target language, developing their confidence to engage in mediation tasks as a feature of their lifelong learning pathways.

  • A range of scrabble tiles lying on a pink surface in random order.

    The most commonly misspelled words in English

    By app Languages

    If you've ever had the feeling a word doesn’t look right after you've typed it, you are not alone.The most commonly misspelled words from this list pose challenges for more people than you think. English native speaker or not, hard-to-spell words are determined to give you a headache. And if bad spelling does happen, it’s usually in very important contexts like a vital application letter or during a conversation with your crush – which can really change the tone and potentially cause confusion or embarrassment.

    English has drawn inspiration from many different languages, so it’s perfectly normal to get confused because of its double consonants and silent letters. We all know that moment when you stare at a word for ages and still can’t believe it has two sets of double letters. There are many such examples. In fact, “misspelled” is one of them and people often misspell it.

    Here are some of the most commonly misspelled words in English (both British and American, where necessary), along with their common misspellings.

    1. Accommodate not accomodate

    Also commonly misspelled as:acommodate

    Let’s start strong with a typical example of double consonants – two sets of them.

    2. Acquire not aquire

    Think of this rhyme whenever you encounter the word: 'I c that you want to acquire that wire'.

    3. Awkward not akward

    It also describes how we feel when we realize we’ve just misspelled a word.

    4. Believe not belive

    Remember the rhyme ‘I before E, except after C’. The same rule applies to 'believe', so use this mnemonic when in doubt.There are some exceptions to the rule, so be careful.

    5. Bizarre not bizzare

    It’s bizarre that there is only one Z but that’s the way It is.

    6. Colleague not collegue

    Also commonly misspelled as:collaegue, coleague

    It’s hard to get this one right! Make a funny association like 'the big league of the double Ls', you may just win the misspelling match.

    7. Embarrassed not embarassed

    Also commonly misspelled as:embarrased

    If you remember this one, you’ll reduce the chances of finding yourself in an embarrassing bad spelling situation.

    8. Entrepreneur not enterpreneur

    Also commonly misspelled as:entrepeneur, entreprenur, entreperneur

    It’s not only hard to spell, but also hard to pronounce. The origins? It’s a French word coming from the root entreprendre (‘undertake’).

    9. Environment not enviroment

    The N is silent, so it’s quite easy to misspell this one too. Luckily, it’s similar to 'government' whose verb is 'to govern' which ends in N. A very long, but good association.

    10. Definitely not definately

    Also commonly misspelled as:deffinately, deffinitely, definitley

    You’ll definitely get this one right if you remember it’s not a case of double letters. Neither does it feature any As.

    11. Liaison not liasion

    There’s a reason why you’re never sure how to spell 'liaison', 'bureaucracy', 'manoeuvre', 'questionnaire' and 'connoisseur'. They do not follow the same patterns because they are all French words.

    12. License not lisence

    In American English, it’s always spelled 'license' – no matter what. On the other hand, in British English, it’s spelled 'license' when it’s a verb and 'licence' when it’s a noun. Once you decide which spelling you’ll use – American or British – it’s best to go forward with that and stick to it.

    13. Publicly not publically

    Words ending in 'ic' receive the 'ally' suffix when transformed into adverbs (e.g., organically). But 'public' makes an exception so it’s understandable if you misspell it.

    14. Receive not recieve

    Remember the 'I before E, except after C' rule? This is the kind of word where the rule applies. It also applies to 'niece' and 'siege', but it doesn’t apply to 'weird' or 'seize'. So remember the rule but keep in mind it has some exceptions.

    15. Responsibility not responsability

    People often get tricked by this word’s pronunciation. And if you think about it, it does really sound like it has an A in the middle. Safe to say – it doesn’t. So keep an eye out.

    16. Rhythm not rythm

    This is another borrowed word; in this instance it comes from the Greek word ‘Rhuthmos’ which mean a reoccurring motion.

    17. Separate not seperate

    'Separate' is apparently one of the most misspelled words on Google and it’s understandable why. The same as with 'responsibility', its pronunciation can trick you into thinking there’s an E there.

    18. Strength not strenght

    Even spelling pros will sometimes have to think twice about this one. Our mind is probably used to seeing the H after the G because of words like 'through'. Not this time though (wink wink).

    Don’t forget that the same goes for 'length' (and not 'lenght').

    19. Successful not successfull

    Also commonly misspelled as:succesful, sucessful

    There are so many double consonants in English, that it can become tempting to double them all at times. But for the love of English, don’t do that to 'successful'.

    20. Succinct not succint

    Some people would say two Cs are enough. This is why the word 'succinct' gets misspelled so frequently. The third S is indeed very soft, but don’t let pronunciation deceive you.

    21. Thorough not thurough

    You may have heard of this tongue twister: “English can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.” It’s hard not to get confused with so many similar-looking words. You add an O to 'through' and its pronunciation changes completely.

    22. Until not untill

    In fact, 'until' was spelled with two Ls in the Middle Ages. If it helps you remember, you can think it just lost some weight but getting rid of the last L (unlike 'still').

    23. Whether not wether

    Not as confusing as the 'through' and 'thorough' example, but still pretty challenging.

    24. Which or witch not wich

    Do you know which one is which?

    Advice to avoid misspellings

    One obvious answer would be spell-checkers, but the truth is that spell-checkers won’t actually help you to improve your spelling. You will continue to misspell words and they’ll continue to correct them. This process is passive and won’t stimulate you to learn the correct spelling because somebody else already does the job for you.

    The best advice? Practice, practice and practice!

    If you keep attempting to spell challenging words and checking them it will begin to sink in and become second nature over time. Using tools like dictionaries and language learning apps such as Mondly can help you practice and learn spelling. If you persevere and practice you can avoid any spelling mishaps.