Case studies of learning disabled students with deficient syntactic control in English as a foreign language

Abstract

This paper discusses a mini-experiment; an exercise was devised to investigate the effects of repeated articulation on the acquisition of syntax. The main participants of the experiment are two Hebrew-speaking students, one formally assessed as having reading disabilities, one female age 14 (Q) and one dyslexic male age 16 (W). Q has been learning English at school for 4 years; she is in eighth grade. She is in the group for weak learners of English and does not show signs of a reading disability. She has taken private tuition once a week for approximately 5 months. She had not previously studied the target structure in the experiment. The results are discussed in light of the literature review findings, and some applied implications and conclusions were drawn for learning disabilities (LD) teaching.