Dyslexia and english as a foreign language in norwegian elementary education: A mixed methodsiIntervention study
Abstract
The current study is situated in the field of English didactics. It is also a special educational study, because
it investigates the effect of specific ways of teaching learners with dyslexia, a literacy-related
neurodevelopmental specific learning difficulty. This study was performed in a Norwegian elementary
school, as a single group intervention study that targeted spelling difficulties, because this is the most
resilient difficulty amongst the range of difficulties that dyslexic learners experience. The main objective of
the study was to investigate the effect that multisensory techniques have on spelling skills for Norwegian
dyslexic 5th to 6th grade students. A secondary objective entailed examining the emotional and
motivational effect of the multisensory spelling intervention.
The participants of the study included a special education teacher, five dyslexic students from 5th and 6th
grade and an individual with AD/HD. The intervention was designed by the current researcher and
executed by the special education teacher at the school. To answer the research questions quantitative
data in the form of spelling tests was administered prior to and after the intervention in a mixed methods
pre-test/post-test design. This was done to observe any development in spelling skills after the intervention.
During the intervention, qualitative observation notes were recorded. The students also responded to a
questionnaire after the intervention. Finally, the special education teacher was interviewed approximately a
month after the post-test was administered. The research findings revealed that the intervention was successful. The group overall exhibited a 6.2
statistically significant difference in mean scores between the pre- and post-test. Quite interestingly, the
individual scores were quite dispersed. One of the dyslexic 5th grade students displayed a 180% increase.
Another dyslexic 5th grade student surpassed the mean of her non-dyslexic classmates. Three of the five
dyslexic learners exhibited comorbidities, which appeared to have an impact on the effectiveness of the
intervention. This is in line with prior research. Although some students did not progress as significantly as
others, all students reported gains in their motivation and improvements in attitude towards learning
English. Finally, the special education teacher corroborated the quantitative findings and also reported
gains in motivation for each student. Although the sample size is small and by no means a representation
of the entire population of dyslexic students, the results are consistent with prior findings of other related
studies. Thus, the results are valid and support a further inquiry into the effectiveness of specific English
didactics on the language proficiency for dyslexic EFL learners.
Description
Master i skolerettet utdanningsvitenskap