Adolescent Dyslexic Technical Vocational Pupils: An Advice for Classroom English Language Teaching and a Basic Neurocognitve Understanding of Dyslexia

Abstract

This study investigated dyslexic adolescent students in a particular niche namely that of Dutch technical vocational education. Findings from both the literature review and the results from a series of tests confirm that dyslexic students have impaired word learning skills, most likely resulting from a phonological impairment, anchoring deficit and an impaired declarative memory. Contrary, picture recognition was not to be impaired. Surprisingly, the executive functions of Working Memory and set shifting skills yielded different results than in previous studies, which creates opportunities for further research. Findings of this study indicate that didactical forms and lesson presentations may differ for Vocational Technical Education which caters for a relatively high percentage of Dyslexic students.