Cognitive linguistic and affective aspects of learning to read in Spanish by English-speaking adults with and without reading disability

The inquiry reported here describes cognitive, linguistic and affective aspects of reading in Spanish by English speaking adults with and without reading disabilities. Seven detailed case studies describe the different aspects that were involved in the process of learning and teaching to read in a second language. The author of this thesis, who was the teacher of the course, used a longitudinal approach in this research to study the way 4 normal readers (NR) and 3 disabled readers (DR) learn to read in Spanish. The 2 hour sessions were held in the teacher's home 2 times a week for a period of 6 months. The students voluntarily enrolled in the Spanish course because they were interested in Spanish culture.;The goal was to determine to what extent problems faced by adults with and without reading disability in English, a language with a "deep" orthography, were transferred to Spanish, a language with a "shallow" orthography, and to identify through direct observation, periodic testing and individual and collective interviews those aspects that might facilitate or interfere with reading in Spanish.;The results of working with DR and NR adults suggest that both the central processing hypothesis and the idea that a shallow orthography is easier to decode are important in understanding reading acquisition of a second language. In the present study, DR students experienced problems in developing reading skills in Spanish in spite of the less complex nature of the Spanish orthography. They also had more difficulty in developing vocabulary and grammar skills. NR did not experience similar problems and could acquire with ease the rudiments of Spanish vocabulary, syntax and reading.;To measure the linguistic and cognitive aspects, periodic tests were given which included decoding, spelling, word recognition, pseudowords, comprehension and memory components. Affective aspects, which played an important role among the DR especially, were measured using individual and collective interviews as recorded on audio-tape. Throughout the instructional period, the role of the students changed in that they became participants, and as they wrote their stories with myself as a partner, they became co-researchers.;Through this research there was an opportunity for getting insights into whether a reading disability is as much of a limitation in one language (Spanish) as it is in another (English) and to develop principles and implications of teaching adults to read a second language. In spite of the fact that the DR showed extreme difficulty in understanding grammar because of their lack of learning strategies, it was a positive experience for them since they had the opportunity to deal with their limitations in learning.