Dyslexia OR Shut-Down Learner (Part 3)

I don’t like the word dyslexic as it does not have a definite meaning. I prefer to use the word shut-down learners or Disengaged Students. These are the type of students who have come to me. I have yet to see a student who has the following difficulties:

·         Problems processing and understanding what he or she hears

·         Inability to sound out the pronunciation of an unfamiliar words

·         Difficulty learning the names of letters or the sounds of the alphabet, numbers

·         Difficulty learning to say the alphabet in the correct order or counting to 10 correctly.

·         Difficulty with "phonemic awareness"

·         Complain of feeling or seeing non-existent movement while reading

·         Visual disturbances when reading – for example, a child may describe letters and words as seeming to move around or appear blurred

Dyslexia or Shut Down Learner (Part 2)

·         Trouble learning a foreign language (2)

This term Learning Disability or Dyslexia is used as a loose collection of problems from underachievement to mental retardation.
On what basis do researchers state that students with Learning Disabilities or so called dyslexics have difficulty learning a foreign language?
Where is the evidence to support the statement that so called dyslexics have difficulties learning a foreign language?

Another confession of a teacher

The following is extracted from a blog by Melinda Crean  found here:  

“You know at the end of university I didn’t have a clue how to teach kids how to read, write and spell.  I came through university with the whole language approach to teaching reading.  This approach is based on the visual memorisation of whole written words and doesn’t teach the skills or conceptual knowledge needed to read.  When I came through uni, phonics was a bit taboo, and we were told that we don’t teach literacy like that anymore.  I have had no exposure to phonics and don’t really know much about this approach to teaching reading”.