[EDLING:780] Re: Dyslexia and Language Learning?

[Harold F. Schiffman]

I have some personal experience with this issue that is not motivated by
any "research" on the topic, but in a number of cases (including that of
my own son) I observed that schools that are either private or have
special mandates, such as "immersion" programs, have little tolerance for
children with any kind of learning difficulty, e.g. dyslexia. In one case,
friends of mine whose son was in a French immersion program in San Diego,
and began to have problems with dyslexia (which he hadn't had in
English-medium) opted to switch to a school with a strong science emphasis
(a face-saving device). The immersion program had no tolerance for, and no
resources for dealing with learning-disabled children.

In the case of my son, he was ejected (I use the word advisedly) from a
Catholic school because he was ADHD and Sister Paula had no tolerance for
children who did not do exactly what she told them to do, at exactly the
moment that she gave the order.  Four other "problem" children were also
ejected from that first-grade class at that time. My son had been already
receiving some special services from the public school system, and was
"in" the system (had a number) so we could transfer him easily, but the
others were in deep trouble.

But at that point the scales fell away from my eyes. I perceived that the
reason private or special schools do well is that they eject the "problem"
children, so that by graduation time, only the unproblematic
high-achieving ones are left. I assume this may also be why the French
immersion schools studied by Lambert & Tucker etc. in Canada had "equal"
rates of performance in English by the time they reached the sixth
grade--because all the problem children had transferred elsewhere?

For this reason I also reject the notion that if we privatized all our
schools in the US and established charter schools etc. all our problems
would be solved. What I perceive is that some children would never be
accepted in any of these schools, and so there would have to be "schools
of last resort" to take them in.  Or, we would have to require privatized
schools or charter schools to take in at least 10% of children with
dyslexia, ADHD, and other "problems" in order to equalize the burden.

H. Schiffman

On Wed, 27 Apr 2005, Francis M Hult wrote:

> It was suggested to me recently that learners who are dyslexic should
> not seek to specialize in language studies (e.g., majoring in a foreign
> language) since their dyslexia would prevent them from achieving the skills
> expected of a language major.  This seems discriminatory to me.  Would
> one prevent a blind or deaf student from being a language major?
>
> I am wondering if anyone knows of research or major findings regarding
> adult language learners and dyslexia?  Have there been any findings about
> dyslexia and ultimate attainment?  I would expect findings that suggest
> students could work with their dyslexia in an L2 in a similar way that they
> would in their L1.  Has this been found to be true?  Also, does anyone know
> of anything written about best practice in FL/SL assessment of students
> with dyslexia?
>
> Francis
>