Curriculum, learning and teaching
Dyslexia – an EAL difficulty, a specific learning difficulty – or both? Mary Mountstephen says that schools need a structure in place to answer this question
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can, however, be at least partly overcome by either using tests which are not so heavily reliant on language, or on using some assessments which can be carried out in the individual’s first language. This can then help guide the individual student’s support programme. In addition to the day-to-day life of the student, there are also ethical and inclusion issues to be considered to ensure that the student is not overlooked in terms of access arrangements for examinations that might include the provision of extra time, reader and/or scribe. Such considerations become relevant also in relation to the inspection process, when schools need to demonstrate that there is a proactive and planned process for the identification of ‘hidden’ barriers to learning and academic achievement. I have been providing 1:1 assessments of academic potential for EAL students when there have been concerns expressed by Summer |
Winter
As the number of non-native-English speaking students attending English medium international schools increases, those involved in the admissions interview, assessment and intervention process face challenges in accessing appropriate test resources. The task of identifying English as an Additional Language (EAL) students with potentially additional specific learning difficulties requires a more specialist approach and one that moves beyond assessments of language knowledge alone. In this article, I will look at some of the features of dyslexia that may also be apparent in EAL learners, as well as ways of overcoming some barriers to the identification of underlying learning differences. At the initial admissions interview, screening tools in common use are generally produced and standardised for the English speaking population; this, by definition, can place any EAL student at a distinct disadvantage. This
| 2018