Running head: ELL STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA
ELL Students with Dyslexia
Maria G. Coronado
University of St. Thomas EDUC 6326
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ELL STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA
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ELL Students with Dyslexia
American schools are responsible for teaching English to Native Spanish Speakers. An
often-overlooked student group are native Spanish speakers who also have dyslexia. Syllable
structure, syllable time, and word shapes differentiate in the Spanish language compared to the
English language. According to Alvarado (2009), “The majority of research studies in the area of
dyslexia have been with English-speaking individuals” (p.1). These differences are especially
important when English Language Learners (ELL) who are native Spanish speakers are trying to
learn to read in English. Deficit in phonological skills in both the native language and the second
language is indicative of dyslexia (Nijakowska, 2010). Dyslexia influences the reading ability of
a Spanish ELL when transitioning to English because in Spanish syllables are emphasized, not
the individual phoneme. According to Alvarado (2009): The linguistic structures of different
languages vary; therefore, the sequence and development of phonological awareness across these
languages will also differ. The development, and possibly the sequence, of phonological
awareness will be driven by the cues of the student’s language.
The most common syllable structure in Spanish is the open vowel syllable. It follows the
consonant vowel pattern. The number of vowels determines the number of syllables in a word.
For example, casa would be divided ca-sa following the CV pattern. In English, the most
common syllable structure is the closed vowel syllable. The CVC form is vague because it does
not follow direct guidelines like the CV form in Spanish. This is especially true with consonant
blends. Manipulate could be divided “man-i-pul-ate” following the CVC pattern, but the correct
form is “ma-nip-u-late” (Alvarado, 2009).
Syllable time is equal in Spanish. The pronunciation of the syllables in words have about
the same interval. In English, words with stressed syllables have different intervals. For example,
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the word explicar in Spanish is divided ex-pli-car, but the word explain in English stresses “ai”.
This part sounds higher, louder, and longer (Alvarado, 2009).
Word shape in Spanish and English differ. Monosyllabic words are very common in
English and used in various content. In Spanish, monosyllabic words are uncommon and
reserved for articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and pronouns. Consonant clusters in English are
recurrent and used in the beginning, medial, or ending positions. In Spanish, they are not as
recurrent and used only at the beginning or medial position.
Therefore, when attempting to read in English, Spanish speaking students with dyslexia
must take into consideration the differences in the language.
F. Ramus et al. (2003) studied the following:
Dyslexia is a neurological disorder with a genetic origin, which is currently being
investigated. The disorder has lifelong persistence, reading retardation being merely one
of its manifestations. Beyond this consensus, and despite decades of intensive research,
the underlying biological and cognitive causes of the reading retardation are still hotly
debated (p. 841).
The absence of the phonological skills in the primary language make it even more difficult to
acquire them in the secondary language. These students have a reading retardation in their native
language and consequently in the second language.
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The reading process in Spanish differs from English because syllables are
emphasized not the phonemes or names of graphemes with the exception of the vowels. Reading
instruction is with phonics. According to Alvarado (2009):
In the early stages of reading, children are immediately taught the grapheme that
matches the phoneme. Often, children are not taught the letter name of the grapheme,
only its phoneme, because many letter names are combinations of several phonemes,
ruining the advantage of the transparency of the language. For example, in Spanish, the
letter name for the grapheme “f” is “efe”, while its phoneme is /f/. Teachers may delay or
even delete the teaching of the letter name (p. 7).
Furthermore, the vowels in Spanish only have one phoneme and they correspond to their
grapheme. This makes the vowels easy to identify in isolation or in context. This is similar to the
grapheme/phoneme correspondence in long vowels in English. The long “a” sounds like the
grapheme “a” and “e” with “e” and so forth. Alvarado (2007) states “Because of the strong
phoneme/grapheme connection of vowels, Spanish speakers rarely omit vowels when writing.
For English speakers, vowels cause special difficulty in the writing” (p. 7).
Consonant introduction comes after students have mastered the vowels. Teaching the
name of the consonant is not necessary, but the sound is essential. Once a student can combine
the consonant and vowel to form a syllable they can make words and consequently sentences. It
is important to acknowledge that rhyming is not an essential skill in the reading process in
Spanish because word families do not exist as they do in English (Alvarado, 2007).
Finally, it is almost incredible that, in Spanish, teaching all consonants is not necessary
in order for students to begin to read. When students come upon an unknown word, they
automatically divide the word into syllables. If a student is having difficulty decoding in this
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manner he or she receives instruction at the phoneme level but taken back to the syllable level.
Alvarado (2009) gives the following example:
… most students seeing the word “gato” for the first time, would sound it out as “ga-to”
dividing the word into its syllable components because this is the way they were taught.
For a student who is having trouble reading the word, the teacher might teach the student
to sound out the phonemes that make up each of the syllables and then combine the
syllables to make the word (/g/ + /a/ is “ga” and /t/ + /o/ is “to” and “ga-to” makes
“gato”) (p. 8).
Spanish ELLs cannot transfer this skill to English. They must learn at the phoneme level and
make the grapheme/phoneme connections. Spanish speaking students with dyslexia already
experience reading difficulty in their native language, which is primarily phonetic, and encounter
more difficulty in learning to read in English.
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References
Bilingual Special Education Evaluation Network of Texas Facilitated by Dr. Criselda Guajardo
Alvarado (2009). Dyslexia and the spanish speaking and bilingual (english/spanish
speaking) student. Pearland, TX: Author.
Nijakowska, J. (2010). Dyslexia in the foreign language classroom. Bristol: Multilingual
Matters.
Ramus, F. (2003). Theories of developmental dyslexia:insights from a multiple case study of
dyslexic adults. Brain, 126 841-865.