A Study Of Diagnosis And Teaching Intervention Of English Dyslexia In Junior High School Students

Dyslexia is a first language learning impairment which is observed among individuals.Despite quite a few researches done in the first language context,research to examine its occurrence in foreign language context is sparse.English reading is a complex neuropsychological process involving many cognitive skills,such as phonological awareness,naming speed,orthographic awareness,reading comprehension and so on.Once there is a defect in cognitive skills that are required in reading,it may cause the occurrence of dyslexia.Dyslexia is a specific learning difficulty or learning difference which affects many aspects of life and learning,and it's better to intervene dyslexia early.There are a lot of exhaustive researches on dyslexia in English countries,and there is a specialized dyslexia research association.The researches on dyslexia in China begin relatively later,and there is no systematic field of research.Moreover,the researchers mainly focus on the special education and Chinese dyslexia,and there are few studies on English dyslexia.Only when English teachers know the specific characteristics and causes of students' difficulties in English reading,can English reading teaching be carried out more effectively.Therefore,this thesis aims to investigate the specific characteristics of English dyslexia in junior high school students and to enhance the English reading abilities of dyslexic students through a series of teaching interventions.This thesis attempts to answer the following questions:(1)What are the specific representations of English dyslexia in junior high school students?(2)What are the main causes of English dyslexia in junior high school students?(3)What teaching interventions can be done to effectively enhance the English reading abilities of dyslexic junior high school students?This thesis consists of two parts,a diagnostic part and a teaching intervention part.There are twenty subjects in the diagnostic part,ten normal reading students and ten dyslexic students.These ten dyslexic students are diagnosed and recommended by Jinan Ruifeng Auditory Language Rehabilitation Center.Based on self-reports of the ten dyslexic students,the classroom observations of their teachers and the screening of thetest specially developed in this study,these ten students are diagnosed as English dyslexics.For the third research question,three dyslexic students are selected as the intervention subjects from the dyslexic group in this study.With the consent of their parents and these three dyslexic subjects,these three dyslexic subjects received six-month teaching interventions.Teaching interventions are carried out in one-to-one teaching,once a week for 100 minutes,with the second volume of seventh grade English book(People's Education Press edition)as the main teaching materials.Phonological processing,semantic processing,word recognition,reading comprehension and grammar teaching are taught to these three dyslexic subjects.After six months of teaching interventions,these three dyslexic subjects(intervention group)are retested for reading.Quantitative and qualitative analysis are operated with SPSS21.0.Combined with the interviews of the English teachers of the three experimental subjects,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)The characteristics of English dyslexia in junior high school students in China are mainly embodied in four aspects: phonetic processing,word recognition,rapid naming and reading comprehension,which is consistent with the results of earlier previous studies in English-speaking countries.Different from the Phonological Core Defects Hypothesis in English-speaking countries,apart from phonological processing defects,junior high school students in China also have apparent defects in English word recognition,which may be caused by two completely different spelling systems of English and Chinese.(2)Phonological processing defects in Chinese dyslexic students are the main factors causing dyslexia,and phonological processing teaching is the key point of teaching intervention in instruction of students with dyslexia.(3)The results of teaching interventions in this research suggest that the earlier the interventions are carried out,the better intervention effectiveness will be.Phonological processing,word recognition and reading comprehension are the main contents of teaching intervention in the present study.According to the results of the diagnostic part and teaching interventions,there is an important significance in doing research on diagnosis and teaching intervention of English dyslexia in junior high school students.Although the teaching interventions inthis thesis are carried out in one-to-one teaching,its teaching methods are also applicable to inclusive class.Based on the results of these teaching interventions,some teaching suggestions for English teachers who may teach some dyslexic students are proposed,including paying attention to cultivating students' phonological processing proficiency,improving students' abilities to decode words,strengthening students' ability to grasp the structure of articles,and paying attention to discourse teaching.