Abstract
It has been reported that children with dyslexia have difficulties with learning a second language. The English alphabetic code is opaque, and it has been stated that deep orthographies cause important problems in children with dyslexia. Considering the strong differences between the Spanish and English orthographic systems, we predicted English reading problems in Spanish-speaking children with dyslexia. The current study focused on English as a foreign language in a group of 22 Spanish children with dyslexia (8–12 year olds), compared to a control group matched for age, gender, grade, and socioeconomic status. The objective was to identify the main difficulties that Spanish-speaking children with dyslexia demonstrate during English reading, to develop specific teaching programs. Participants were given four tasks related to reading: discrimination of phonemes, visual lexical decision, reading aloud, and oral vs. written semantic classification. The results suggest that children with dyslexia demonstrate problems in using English grapheme–phoneme rules, forcing them to employ a lexical strategy to read English words. However, they also showed difficulties in developing orthographic representations of words. Finally, they also exhibited problems with oral language, demonstrating difficulties accessing semantic information from an auditory presentation.
Highlights
Developmental DyslexiaDevelopmental dyslexia is considered a neurobiological condition characterized by specific and pronounced difficulty in reading and writing acquisition
The current study focused on English as a foreign language in a group of 22 Spanish children with dyslexia (8–12 year olds), compared to a control group matched for age, gender, grade, and socioeconomic status
The Italian children with dyslexia showed poor reading of English words; contrary to the results reported by Lockiewicz and Jaskulska (2016), they seemed to manage English G–P rules because they showed a high level of accuracy when reading pseudo-words
Summary
Developmental dyslexia is considered a neurobiological condition characterized by specific and pronounced difficulty in reading and writing acquisition. This condition results in persistent accuracy and speed deficits in both reading and writing competencies (Grainger et al, 2003; Lyon et al, 2003; Suárez-Coalla and Cuetos, 2012, 2015; Afonso et al, 2019). Recent studies suggest that the phonological deficit could be partially caused by certain subtle disorders in sound perception, preventing children with dyslexia from developing good phonological representation (Goswami, 2002; Boets et al, 2006; Beattie and Manis, 2012; Cuetos et al, 2018). Reading in English as a Foreign Language determine phonological awareness and literacy acquisition, which could cause more pronounced and profound problems for foreign language (FL) learning
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