Dyslexia in English language education: A study on primary school EFL teachers' awareness

Dyslexia is a specific learning difference affecting reading ability due to a miscommunication between information processing and decoding. This difference is estimated to be predominant towards the 10% of the world, connoting a high possibility of encountering at least one dyslexic student in each classroom. In the context of foreign language classrooms, processing and decoding information in an additional language when they already are behind in their native language development might be confusing for dyslexic students. That being the case, without being aware of dyslexia and the presence of their dyslexic students, EFL teachers might misinterpret and mistreat them and leave a negative impact on the students' target language learning progress. With the aim of enabling such students to have the minimum risk of failure and being destitute of support in their EFL development as far in advance as possible, the present study measures how aware Turkish primary school EFL teachers are of dyslexia in Türkiye, which is a gap in the related literature in terms of its context, and suggests what should be done in the Turkish education system in order to maximize the number of opportunities to be provided for dyslexic EFL students in the near future. In light of this ultimate aim, the present study makes an in-depth investigation of EFL teachers' knowledge of dyslexia and how to teach dyslexic EFL students in inclusive classrooms to identify the points where they lack knowledge and to reveal the reasons behind this situation. With a mixed-method design that is explanatory in nature, the present study included two data tools, which were a three-point scale with 36 items developed by Soriano-Ferrer and Echegaray-Bengoa (2014), namely, the Knowledge and Beliefs about Developmental Dyslexia Scale (See Appendix A), and a structured-interview with seven questions developed by the researcher (See Appendix B). Accordingly, with the participation of 288 Turkish primary school EFL teachers from five cities in the Marmara Region of Türkiye, namely Balıkesir, Bursa, İstanbul, Kocaeli, and Sakarya, the data were collected online. Following this step, the quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive analysis, whereas what was conducted for the qualitative data was inductive content analysis. Regarding the findings, it could be put in a nutshell that the Turkish primary school EFL teachers are mostly unaware of what dyslexia actually is. They only have a basic understanding of the connection between dyslexia and reading skills. However, when it comes to specific details such as the prevalence of dyslexia, its impact on phonological processing, the effects on self-confidence in individuals with dyslexia, its hereditary nature and incurability, or methods for teaching EFL to dyslexic students, and so on, their level of unawareness reaches a peak. Moreover, the participants wrongly associate dyslexia with the visual perception of reversed or mirrored letters and words. In spite of all those, what is promising is that the primary school EFL teachers are aware of their unawareness and would like to help their dyslexic students by maximizing their dyslexia awareness and improving their teaching skills. In order to take a step towards such a future when dyslexic students are actually seen, understood, and provided with support for their learning needs in the process of their target language development, the present study suggests that content preparing EFL teacher candidates for teaching reading and writing skills to students with dyslexia, related training programs for in-service EFL teachers, and the adjustment of dyslexia-friendly primary school curricula with additional individualized education programs on English should be provided.