Dyslexia in the European EFL Teacher Training Context

Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty that has an effect not only on literacy skills in students’ first language, but also on foreign language learning (Sparks et al. 1989, 2006; Peer and Reid 2000; Schneider and Crombie 2003; Nijakowska 2008, 2010; Kormos and Smith 2012). In order to ensure that dyslexic students successfully acquire necessary levels of foreign language competence, they need adequate instruction and teachers’ support. However, frequently enough, EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers lack sufficient understanding of the nature of dyslexia and the difficulties it causes in foreign language learning. They are not familiar with the relevant teaching techniques and methods to further the language learning processes of students with dyslexia. It seems that more often than not it results from the lack of satisfactory training on dyslexia/learning differences during the course of studies as well as from the limited offer of courses for in-service teachers which would enable them to get qualifications (knowledge and skills) to teach foreign languages to dyslexic students with success. The chapter reviews the outcomes of a study whose aim was to identify the professional development needs of EFL teachers with regard to teaching dyslexic language learners. Data has been collected with the use of an online survey. The study has been conducted among the pre- and in-service EFL teachers mainly from six European countries where institutions participating in the DysTEFL project www.dystefl.eu are located. The findings of the present study indicate that the respondents perceived their knowledge and skills with regard to teaching dyslexic language learners as rather poor. They acknowledged the existence of the apparent gap in their training concerning this issue and expressed a well-defined need and interest in further professional development in this respect. In addition, they voiced their opinion and preferences as to the format, content matter as well as types of tasks and activities they would find most favourable in the training materials/course on the EFL and dyslexia. Thus, the immediate implications of the study refer to both the structure and content of the training materials/course for EFL teachers to be developed by the DysTEFL project consortium in response to the needs teachers articulated in the survey. More broadly, the findings seem relevant and informative for the higher education authorities and teacher training institutions responsible for designing professional training schemes for EFL pre- and in-service teachers.