Teaching Yiddish to Students with Dyslexia: A Working Document

Although it may seem from the outside that language instructors teaching introductory level classes are working through the same material year after year, many of us know that our teaching is far from routine. We develop our lessons with attention to new trends in second language acquisition pedagogy, in response to changes in the world around us, and according to the needs and interests of the students in our classes. We are always learning.

Last year, I was presented with a challenge that was new for me — but one that I know other language instructors have faced before, and that I will face again in years ahead: I had a student in my introductory level class with dyslexia. In teaching this student I felt unprepared, and I scrambled to learn as much as I could in order to better support my student and to understand how language learning works, both in general and for this student in particular. I am forever grateful to this student for her tenacity, for being so communicative about what was helpful in her learning, for her openness to try new things and especially for her patience as I learned with her about language processing. I am very much in her debt.

What follows is a working document of ideas and understandings I have compiled during the past year or so of teaching, and learning from, this student, as well as from resources I have drawn upon and found useful. This is not an exhaustive document and I am very far from an expert on this topic, but I wanted to share what I’ve learned with other instructors so that if you find yourself in the position I did you won’t have to start from scratch as you figure out how to support your students who have this particular difficulty. I have not, myself, managed to implement all of these suggestions and I see them as aspirational starting points based on the reading and learning I have recently done.

I would be grateful for others to reach out and share their knowledge, ideas, and resources to expand this document, and would love to hear about your experiences as teachers and learners.

What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty in language processing that can manifest in reading, spelling, writing, and also auditory processing. The disorder is related to anomalies in the brain: “the anatomy of the temporal lobe is disorganized, its connectivity is altered, and several regions are insufficiently activated during reading.” ^{1 1} Stanislas Dehaene (2009). Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention Viking. Scientists believe the disorder has a strong genetic component. However, dyslexia is a complex problem that cannot be easily reduced to a single cause.

“In layman’s terms,” as one resource describes it, “the typical brain organization for reading and spelling does not function as expected in dyslexia even though the learner may be intelligent and in a stimulating environment.” ^{2 2} J. Richard Genry and Gene P. Ouellette (2019). Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Stenhouse Publishers, p. 123. Students with dyslexia experience difficulty in processing phonemes and matching phonemes to graphemes (connecting sounds to letters). They find it difficult to remember and distinguish between language sounds and their corresponding graphic symbols. Learning the letters can take a very long time for these students — but it is also very possible! It requires persistence and patience.

Once a student is able to decode letters, the next step is lexical storage: People without dyslexia can picture how words that they have learned are spelled. Students with dyslexia can’t see the word in front of their inner eye; they can’t recognize spelling that doesn’t “look right.” So they write phonetically, based on how they have heard the word; they don’t have the ability to just copy it from their mind. They may use mirror images of letters or write words down in reverse direction, and in reading and spelling they may display omission, insertion displacement, condensation, rotation reversal, substitution, and guessing. Because people with dyslexia have difficulty in orthographic learning (spelling), this in turn affects their ability to automatically recognize words and remember them, an essential component of automatic reading. ^{3 3} See J. Richard Genry and Gene P. Ouellette (2019). Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Stenhouse Publishers, p. 129. These authors cite a number of other studies in their overview of dyslexia and its relation to spelling and reading ability.

In addition to these learning difficulties, it is extremely common for students with dyslexia to experience anxiety in language learning. ^{4 4} I am grateful to Sasha Berenstein, who has informed my understanding of academic trauma in a language learning context and attuned me to my responsibility as a language instructor to think with trauma-informed pedagogy in my teaching. This is because these learners suffer from subtle or overt native language impairments that may have resulted in being labeled as “lazy” or as “bad” students elsewhere in their academic careers, and may have triggered low self-confidence. As David Pollack explains: “the memory of being called unintelligent… increases negative feelings; this in turn leads to poor self-esteem and lack of confidence, which reduces motivation; this is then interpreted by others - and probably by the student as well - as evidence of low intelligence.” ^{5 5} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, p. 41. Joanna Nijkowska also notes, “Individuals with dyslexia are reported to frequently suffer from emotional-motivational problems of various intensity with regard to low self-perception, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, feelings of shame, fear, embarrassment, and frustration, caused by experiencing constant failure in the acquisition of reading and spelling skills.” ^{6 6} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, p. 97. Such students experience high levels of language anxiety throughout their language study. ^{7 7} Piechurska-Kuciel, E. (2008) Input, processing and output anxiety in students with symptoms of developmental dyslexia. In J. Kormos and E. H. Kontra (eds) Language Learners with Special Needs (pp. 86-109). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Attention to this emotional-motivational aspect of students’ learning is essential in coaching them toward success in language acquisition, particularly as such students may be perceived as “lazy” or “unintelligent” precisely when they are putting in many hours more work than their fellow students to achieve the same result. At the same time, others report that “in older children and adults knowing the symptoms and recognizing that one may have dyslexia can sometimes be liberating.” ^{8 8} J. Richard Genry and Gene P. Ouellette (2019). Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Stenhouse Publishers, p. 131. Knowledge about dyslexia allows the learner to recognize and understand their experiences and target their learning empowered by this knowledge.

Students who experienced dyslexia in their first language are likely to experience it with additional languages. As Joanna Nijakowska writes, “Differences in phonological processing abilities are critically related to word recognition skills across languages, which means that phonological processing abilities in one language, no matter whether L1 or L2, can predict individual differences in word decoding in another language.” ^{9 9} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, p. 108, see also Geva, E. (2000) Issues in the assessment of reading disabilities in L2 children - beliefs and research evidence. Dyslexia 6, 13-28. But learning difficulties may be subtle and are not always noticed during the acquisition of the first language, so a student may not have a name for the difficulties they are experiencing and may not always report it as dyslexia to their instructor. Dyslexia is a life-long condition whose characteristic features alter with age and development. Many highly literate adults have dyslexia, and your student who is struggling with dyslexia in learning Yiddish can become a highly literate Yiddish reader! — especially with your help. ^{10 10} For a discussion of how students classified as having learning disabilities can become proficient in a foreign language, even as native language problems may manifest in their attempts to learn the language, see Mabbot, A. (1995) Arguing for multiple perspectives on the issue of learning disabilities and foreign language acquisition: A response to Sparks, Granschow, and Javorsky. Foreign Language Annals 28 (4), 488-494.

It may take a while to discover that a postsecondary student has dyslexia because they already have some language learning strategies and can cope for a little while; dyslexia is underdiagnosed, especially in the US, ^{11 11} See, for instance, Emily Hanford, “Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia,” The Educate Podcast. September 11, 2017. https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2017/09/11/hard-to-read so many students might not be aware that they have the disorder. A good guideline for suspecting that a student has dyslexia is when they are making different mistakes than other students — unexpected mistakes. If you are able to, you can do an error analysis and categorize the errors the student makes (say, differentiating between particular letters), which can give you good first steps as an instructor for how to help your student, as well as pinpointing the nature of the problem to the student themselves.

What can Yiddish teachers do do to help learners with Dyslexia learn Yiddish?

The difficulties associated with dyslexia vary between learners, and in addition, the intensity of dyslexic difficulties varies depending on the nature of the language and the range of skills required for reading in that language — so students may experience challenges with Yiddish that they did not experience with other languages. For instance, while Yiddish orthography generally maps onto phonology (phonetic spelling), the complication of words derived from Hebrew provide a stumbling block for many Yiddish students and are especially difficult for those for whom spelling is already a significant challenge. However, students coming to Yiddish from English may be relieved that Yiddish spelling is generally not as inconsistent or irregular as English. Students tend to acquire skills that form the basis of alphabetic literacy more quickly in languages such as Yiddish that have a higher degree of consistency and regularity in grapheme-phoneme (letter-to-sound) correspondences. ^{12 12} See Markéta Caravolas, (2005) “The Nature and Causes of Dyslexia in Different Languages,” in The Science of Reading: A Handbook. eds. Margaret J. Snowling and Charles Hulme. Blackwell Publishing. Pp. 336-357. Still, across languages, people with dyslexia have difficulty applying their awareness of phonics to productively and fluently read unfamiliar or infrequent words, and have “particular difficulties in learning inconsistencies and irregularities of writing systems.” ^{13 13} Markéta Caravolas, (2005) “The Nature and Causes of Dyslexia in Different Languages,” in The Science of Reading: A Handbook. eds. Margaret J. Snowling and Charles Hulme. Blackwell Publishing, 355.

In the modern foreign language classroom, there is an emphasis on authentic contexts and inductive acquisition of the language, and the grammatical rule system is de-emphasized in favor of the communicative function of the language. While this may draw on the strengths of neurotypical students’ language acquisition and support a more natural growth of communicative skills, it presents particular problems for students with dyslexia. As Joanna Nijakowska notes, “Learners with dyslexia require explicit and structured instruction.” ^{14 14} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, vii. This might run counter to the pedagogical methods instructors are encouraged to adopt in their classroom and therefore instructors may need to supplement outside of class — or give over additional time within it — for direct, structured, multisensory instruction in the phonological/orthographic system of the language.

Instructors can work to “enhance automatization of the reading and spelling skills” through “direct instruction in phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondences.” ^{15 15} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 116, see also Nicholson, R. I., Fawcett, A. J., Berry, E. L., Jenkins, I. H., Dean, P., and Brooks, D. J. (1999) Motor learning difficulties and abnormal cerebellar activation in dyslexic adults. Lancet 353, 43-47; Vellutino, F. R., Fletcher, J. M., Snowling, M. J., and Scanlon, D. M. (2004) Specific reading disability (dyslexia): What have we learned in the past four decades? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45 (1), 2-40; Wise, J. C., Sevcik, R. A., Morris, R. D., Lovett, M. W., and Wolf, M. (2007) The growth of phonological awareness by children with reading disabilities: A result of semantic knowledge or knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondances? Scientific Studies of Reading 11 (2), 151-164. This requires a great deal of effort, over consistent and sometimes long periods of time; it is not a one-time lesson on the letter-sound correspondences but repeated, systematic work. A multisensory approach presents linguistic material using as many sensory channels as possible to help the brain make connections between sound, letters, and meanings. Instructors may consider a method in which students are first introduced to words aurally and asked to analyze the sounds they hear and attempt to spell it themselves, activating their phonological awareness before they encounter the word in print. ^{16 16} See Richard Gentry and Gene P. Oulette (2024) Brain Words: How the Science of Reading Informs Teaching, 2nd ed. Routledge. Such an approach helps students build better functioning neural pathways for reading and comprehension. Once new words are introduced in written form, instructors can use visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and tactile approaches at once, with attention to how a letter or word looks, how it sounds, and how the mouth and hand feel and they produce the word. ^{17 17} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 125. Methodical teaching of phonics — how written words are built of letters or clusters of letters that represent the sounds of spoken words — is necessary because it is only when sounding out a word becomes natural that readers can focus on reading rather than decoding the language. Students with dyslexia require repetition and “overlearning”, which may eventually lead to automatization. As Nikjakowska explains, “Frequent recapitulation inevitably is a must for students with dyslexia because they usually find it abnormally troublesome to anchor information in memory, moreover intensive rehearsal invites more complete mastery of a certain part of material before the new information is introduced.” ^{18 18} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 123.

Learners with processing difficulties require instruction that is explicit, systematic, structured, sequential, phonetic, phonics-driven, and ideally individualized or conducted in small groups. The instructor should provide clear instructions, defining, modeling, and explaining each new concept, and allowing the student to practice many times until they can produce the answer unaided. ^{19 19} Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 126. Instruction should be apportioned into small units with logical and straightforward presentation of rules, combined with opportunities to practice, moving from simple to more complex and irregular patterns.

In addition, this training can include a metacognitive component. Students with language learning difficulties may benefit from discussion of metacognition and learning process precisely because it is difficult for them to learn the rule system of the language, and the process of learning it is not intuitive for them. ^{20 20} Schneider, E. (1999) Multisensory Structured Metacognitive Instruction. An Approach to Teaching Foreign Language to At-Risk Students. Frankfurt am-Main: Peter Lang. A good place to start is advising the student to explore resources about dyslexia, especially if they have not previously been identified as having this learning difficulty. Giving students an explanation of what dyslexia means and a plan of action can affirm for the student that they are not “lazy” or “unintelligent” but have specific challenges because of the way they learn, and that these challenges can be addressed.

All of this specialized explicit instruction in phonics can feel overwhelming - though I suspect that at least some of it would benefit neurotypical students as well. Still, the additional help that students with dyslexia require can be very time consuming for both the student and the instructor. In addition to my own one-on-one consultations with this student, in my particular case, I was extremely fortunate to have access to funds to hire a graduate student with the requisite language skills and linguistic knowledge to tutor my student outside of class. My student progressed leaps and bounds under his guidance. If this is a possibility in your own institution, it is an intervention I would strongly encourage (based on my very limited experience).

A few additional practical suggestions:

- Adult learners, whether they know of their dyslexia or not, will already have developed strategies for learning. Speak to students and learn from them about what has worked in the past in other similar contexts.

- Encourage students to take pictures of anything written rather than copying it down during class. After class, they may find it helpful to rewrite these things on their own time. Additionally, they may wish to take notes and/or read out loud as they read textbook explanations of grammar, to aid in their processing of their reading.

- Use oral assessment where possible, and offer other accommodations such as additional time to read, shorter reading assignments, or when possible the use of recordings to support reading assignments.

- Use multimodal input as often as possible. Visual clues (pictures) are useful to supplement written and spoken information, as are diagrams and color coding.

- Give positive support — underline all correct words to show students how much they have achieved.

- When giving student instructions on a test, read the instructions out loud so students who have trouble reading are not disadvantaged. Also, don’t grade things you are not testing for. If you are testing for content, don’t grade spelling.

- It may take students with dyslexia longer to respond to class conversations, both because of anxiety and because of processing speed. Give students time and help but do not put them under pressure, because it may take longer for them to understand, find the appropriate vocabulary, and string thoughts together into a grammatical construction that can be understood. Encourage and accept one-word answers as an important first step toward language production.

- When teaching the spelling of a word, teachers can help students improve visual recall by asking questions that draw students’ attention to the letters in the word: How many letters are in the word? How many vowels? Are there more letters before or after the vowel? Are there any final letters?

- Expect to give those with dyslexia additional help with proofreading for spelling when writing. Rather than criticizing and taking off points, offer extra support and encourage a habit of getting help to ensure that spelling is corrected. This can also help with students’ eventual development of a memory of the correct spelling of the word.

- When reading, encourage students to use a finger as a pointer beneath the words and to place an index card above the line being read to help the student keep track of their place. An index card beneath the line is not recommended as it may mask what is to come and restrict eye movement for the words ahead.

When teaching the alefbeys...

- don’t teach in alphabetical or list form. Rather, teach letters according to need, and go quite slowly with each letter (isolate each over a long period of time) to ensure students are confident with each sound. Cover 3-4 letters at a time. Don’t worry about students’ knowing the name of the letters, focus on sound.

- Make the letter(s) into more of a picture, and discuss associations between how the letter looks and other objects/shapes that look similar. Have the students contribute to this conversation about what the letters look like to them and what shapes the letters remind them of. For a multisensory approach, encourage students to make tracing movements of letter shapes in the air so that there is gross muscular movement. The student can pronounce the letter sound as the letter shape is being traced.

- There are a number of resources for explicit instruction of letter-sound correspondences. The Yiddish Book Center’s alphabet resources are a good place to start. Yiddish instructor Karo Wegner has an additional video on letters with similar appearances, which can be found here. Yiddish teacher Avi Fried also has created excellent powerpoints that introduce letters one by one with humor and patience. You can contact him here.

- Matching games are excellent. Yiddish instructor Dvora Zylberman has developed a few online matching games:

Cursive-print matching

Sound-letter matching

More Sound-letter matching

Multiple choice sound-letter matching

- Introduce no more than 5-7 new letters at a time and start by making first syllables then short words with them by pointing to them. You can make this a game in which you give many options and students have to find the correct letters and point to the letters that match the sound you are making. Go from sounds to syllables to words to phrases and eventually to short sentences.

If you have suggestions you’d like to add to this list, please email [email protected]!

Recommended Resources:

“Language Learning and Dyslexia” episode of the podcast Speaking of Language, with Sara Lee.

Joanna Nijakowska. (2010) Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Elke Schneider and Margaret Crombie (2004). Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning. David Fulton Publishers.

*Many thanks to Dvora Zylberman, Judith Liskin-Gasparro, Paula Teitelbaum, LeiAnna Xenia Hamel, Avi Fried, and Ehud Har Even for sharing their knowledge and resources.