Professional Development Course on Catering for Diversity in English Language Teaching ENG5315 The Characteristics of Diversity

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Professional Development Course on Catering for
Diversity in English Language TeachingENG5315The
Characteristics of Diversity

• Session 7
• Issues of diversity in a second language
  classroom characteristics of students with LD
  in reading, writing and spoken language

Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English, The
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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Issues of diversity in a second language classroom
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Difference in what?

• Second language proficiency
• First language
• Transferability of skills from one language to
  another
• Aptitude
• Personality
• Extroverted learners vs. introverted learners

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Difference in what?

• Attitude
• Motivation
• Integrative vs. instrumental
• Learning style
• e.g. tolerance of ambiguity reflective or
  impulsive oriented toward imagery holistic,
  analytical, or logical

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acculturation / assimilation
inclusion
equity
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• Education for a culturally, linguistically, and
  socio-economically diverse population (Chong,
  2007, p. 54)

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Children with special needs

• Children with special needs are those who need
  special educational support because they have
  learning difficulties of several kinds (Education
  and Manpower Bureau, 2005).

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SEN

• Hearing impairment
• Visual impairment
• Physical handicap
• Mental handicap
• Emotional and behavioral difficulties
• Attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
• Autism
• Communication difficulties
• Specific learning difficulties
• Giftedness
• (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2002).

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What are the elements of spoken language?

• Language can be divided into two major
  categories receptive and expressive language.
• It can be further subdivided into major elements
  phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and
  pragmatics.

Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English, The
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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Receptive and expressive language

• Receptive language
• How skilled is the listener in understanding
  what is heard?
• Expressive language
• The production of language

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Difficulties of children with learning
disabilities in receptive and expressive language

• Most learning difficulties exist in the area of
  expressive, not receptive, language.
• Dysarthia Difficulty with the production of
  speech sounds.

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Language components

• Language is generally regarded as having three
  components (or elements) form, content, and use
  (Bloom Lahey, 1978).
• Form the rules by which a language is governed.
• Content what we listen to and read, talk, and
  write about.
• Use the purpose of language.

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Phonology

• Phonology is the study of the individual sound
  units in a language and the rules by which these
  units are combined to create larger language
  units (Raymond, 2008).
• The smallest unit of sound is called a phoneme.

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Morphology

• Morphology is the study of words and how they are
  formed (Kuder, 2008).
• A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in a
  language.

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Syntax

• Syntax is the study of rules that govern how
  words are put together to make phrases and
  sentences (Kuder, 2008).

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Semantics

• Semantics is the study of the meanings of words
  and words in sentences (Hallahan, Lloyd,
  Kauffman, Weiss, Martinez, 2005).

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Pragmatics

• Pragmatics refers to the use of language to
  express ones intentions and to get things done
  in the world (Gleason, 2005, p. 23).

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Characteristics of students with LD in spoken
language Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)
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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD)

• A group of disorders that includes autism.
• Autistic behavior lies on a continuum (or
  spectrum) of severity (Kuder, 2008).
• The number and severity of symptoms may vary, but
  the disorders have several characteristics in
  common.

Prepared by Ruby Yang, Department of English, The
Hong Kong Institute of Education
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Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) Characteristics

• Impairments in social interaction
• Withdrawal from contact with others / little or
  no social interaction.
• Fail to make eye contact with others.
• Impairments in language and communication
• Significant delays in language development
  (Kuder, 2008).

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Difficulties in specific language domains

• Phonology
• Considerable trouble with suprasegmental features
  of sound production.
• Fluctuations in vocal intensity.
• Often may speak in a monotone.
• Repeat sounds and/or words, making their speech
  very hard to follow (Kuder, 2008).

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Difficulties in specific language domains

• Pragmatics
• Significant impairments in the pragmatic aspects
  of language.
• Very unresponsive (Loveland, Landry, Hughes,
  Hall, McEvoy, 1988).
• Rarely initiate communication spontaneously and
  also produce fewer communicative acts (Kuder,
  2008).

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Aspergers syndrome and autism

• Aspergers syndrome
• A developmental disorder falling within the
  autistic spectrum.
• A less severe form of autism.
• Children with Aspergers syndrome usually have
  deficiencies in social interaction.
• However, they have much better language and
  cognitive skills than children with autism
  (Kuder, 2008).

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Key features of Aspergers syndrome

• Children with Aspergers syndrome have poor
  social skills
• Spoken language can sometimes be odd
• Narrow interests
• Repetitive routines and inflexibility

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Language and communication difficulties of
children with Aspergers syndrome

• Failure to adjust their language production in
  response to the context.
• Shifting conversational topics abruptly (Kuder,
  2008).

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Characteristics of students with LD in spoken
language Attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (ADHD)
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Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Characteristics

• Have a short attention span
• Poor concentration
• Easily distracted
• Have difficulty listening
• Forgetful
• Impatient (Cheminais, 2000)

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Language and communication difficulties of
children with ADHD

• The inability to concentrate on the relevant
  features of a conversation results in the
  children making off-topic contributions (Raymond,
  2008).

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Characteristics of students with LD in spoken
language Hearing impairment
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Language and communication difficulties of
children with hearing impairment

• Problems of language form
• Problem of language use (pragmatics)
• Problems with conversational turn-taking
• Inappropriate shifts in topic (Haynes, Moran,
  Pindzola, 2006)

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What are the major elements of reading?

• There are two major components of reading
  decoding and comprehending.

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Decoding and comprehending

• Decoding
• The mechanical aspect of converting print to
  spoken language (Hallahan, Lloyd, Kauffman,
  Weiss, Martinez, 2005).
• Comprehending
• The higher-order aspects of reading in which one
  extracts meaning from language (Hallahan, Lloyd,
  Kauffman, Weiss, Martinez, 2005).

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What problems do children with learning
disabilities have in reading?

• Problems with phonology
• Deficits in phonemic awareness play a central
  role in the problems of children who have
  difficulty learning to read (Hallahan, Lloyd,
  Kauffman, Weiss, Martinez, 2005).

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What problems do children with learning
disabilities have in reading?

• Problems with decoding
• Grapheme-phoneme associations
• Problems with fluency
• Problems with comprehension

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Characteristics of students with LD in reading
Dyslexia
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Dyslexia General characteristics

• Persistent difficulty in learning the components
  of words and sentences.
• A delayed language development.
• Problems in spelling.
• Spatial directional confusion results in
  difficulty in differentiating letters that look
  similar
• Reversals of letters
• Oral reading is marked by slow, word-by-word
  reading.
• Mispronounce a word but still know what the text
  says (Mercer, 1997).

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Phonological and orthographic dyslexia

• Phonological dyslexia
• Cannot sound out words very well and thus, have
  trouble reading new words.
• Might drop some sounds from words.
• Might not be able to figure out that blends like
  /fl/ or /str/ have more than one phoneme to them
  (Hultquist, 2006).

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Phonological and orthographic dyslexia

• Orthographic dyslexia
• Problems with orthographic processing leads to
  trouble with reading and spelling because
  orthographic processing deals with the written
  symbols of language.
• Able to work with the sounds of language but have
  trouble remembering what letters or words look
  like.

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Phonological and orthographic dyslexia

• Orthographic dyslexia (Cont)
• Might have trouble remembering the difference
  between the letters b, d, and p.
• Might confuse words that look alike.
• Often read very slowly and make a lot of errors
  when there are a lot of words on a page.
• Might also skip lines when they read (Hultquist,
  2006).

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Two major types of dyslexic problems

• Auditory dyslexia
• Cannot perceive discrete sounds of spoken
  language.
• Have difficulty discriminating sounds.
• Unable to associate specific sounds with their
  printed symbols, thus have great difficulty with
  spelling.

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Two major types of dyslexic problems

• Visual dyslexia
• Cannot correctly translate printed language
  symbols into meaning.
• May see certain letters backward and upside down.
• Also may see parts of words in reverse.
• Students become frustrated trying to read whole
  words of a sentence (Johnson Myklebust, 1967,
  cited in Mercer, 1997).

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Specific difficulties of dyslexic children

• Phonological processing difficulties
• Phonological processing difficulties are
  fundamental to dyslexia (Snowling, 1995 Lundberg
  Hoien, 2001).
• Dyslexic children may have difficulty in
  detecting phonemes and linking phonemes to
  graphemes (Riddick, Wolfe, Lumsdon, 2001).

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Specific difficulties of dyslexic children

• Visual processing deficits
• Difficulty in recognizing letters, with frequent
  misidentification especially of visually similar
  letters.
• Poor word recognition even for high frequency
  words (Willows Terepocki, 1993).

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Reading comprehension difficulties of dyslexic
children

• Poor reading comprehension because of weak
  decoding skills.
• In some cases, dyslexic children may misread so
  many words that they cant understand what is
  written.
• In other cases, their rate of decoding is so slow
  that by the time they come to the end of a
  sentence or paragraph, they cannot recall what
  has come before (Sanders, 2001).

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Students who experience difficulties with writing

• Written expression requires skills in three major
  areas handwriting, spelling, and composition
  (Hallahan, Lloyd, Kauffman, Weiss, Martinez,
  2005).

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Characteristics of students with LD in writing
Dysgraphia
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What is dysgraphia?

• A learning disability that affects writing
  abilities.
• It can manifest itself as difficulties with
  spelling, poor handwriting and trouble putting
  thoughts on paper (National Center for Learning
  Disabilities, 1999-2008).

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Specific difficulties of children with dysgraphia

• Illegible handwriting
• Irregular and inconsistent letter formations
• Write legibly but very slowly and/or very small
• Ability to express ideas is interfered
  (International Dyslexia Association, 1996-2007)

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Three types of dysgraphia

• Dyslexic dysgraphia
• Spontaneously written text is illegible.
• Oral spelling is poor.
• Copying of written text is normal.

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Three types of dysgraphia

• Motor dysgraphia
• Both spontaneously written and copied text may be
  illegible.
• Oral spelling is normal.

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Three types of dysgraphia

• Spatial dysgraphia
• Illegible writing, whether spontaneously produced
  or copied.
• Oral spelling is normal.

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Diagnosis of dysgraphia

• Dysgraphia cannot be diagnosed solely by looking
  at handwriting samples.
• Not only the finished product is assessed, but
  also the process (The International Dyslexia
  Association, 1996-2007).

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Characteristics of students with LD in writing
Dyspraxia
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Types of developmental dyspraxia

• Oral dyspraxia
• A difficulty with executing non-speech sounds.

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Types of developmental dyspraxia

• Verbal dyspraxia
• A speech disorder that affects the initiating of
  movements required to make speech sounds.
• Children with verbal dyspraxia may
• display highly unintelligible speech
• have delayed expressive language

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Types of developmental dyspraxia

• Motor dyspraxia
• A difficulty in sequencing and executing the
  correct movement to perform age appropriate
  skills in a coordinated manner.
• Children with motor dyspraxia may have
  difficulty with
• coordination including awkwardness in walk,
  clumsiness, or trouble with throwing and catching
  a ball
• holding a pen or pencil properly
• handwriting
• age appropriate skills
• learning rules (Australian Dyspraxia Association
  Inc., 1998-2008)

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Specific difficulties of children with dyspraxia
Handwriting

• Poor handwriting is one of the most common
  symptoms of dyspraxia.
• The handwriting difficulties experienced by
  children with dyspraxia
• Poor pencil grip.
• Abnormal posture.
• Incorrect letter formation.
• Erratic sizing of letter forms.
• Poor alignment of writing on the page.
• Inconsistent spacing between words, either no
  spaces, too narrow or too wide (Dixon Addy,
  2004).

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(Handwriting of a Form 5 dyspraxic boy)
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Inclusive education in Hong Kong

• What are the obstacles in pursuing inclusive
  education in Hong Kong?