Teaching Foreign Languages to Learners with Dyslexia in Greece: An Overview of Theory and Practice

Abstract

The present article summarizes various aspects of teaching foreign languages to learners with dyslexia. In particular, although it is a matter examined broadly around the world, in Greece there are few references and limited research in this field. Furthermore, the lack of foreign language teachers' training in the field of specific learning difficulties in Greece is also examined. In this article, we refer to first language and foreign language(s) acquisition and focus on the situation in Greece, where the first foreign language taught in schools is English and the second foreign language is either German or French. Furthermore, we examine the mechanisms of (second) foreign language acquisition as well as the factors that influence this process. Additionally, we consider the appropriate time to start learning a foreign language, as well as various reading and spelling difficulties that the learners with dyslexia face during this process. A very dominant factor that influences learners with dyslexia and causes difficulties in reading and spelling is the phonological awareness (phonemic awareness and syllable awareness). Due to the cross-linguistic transfer of this skill, we mention ways to improve phonological awareness skills in the first language and in the foreign language(s).