Facilitating positive L1 transfer through explicit spelling instruction for EFL learners with dyslexia: an intervention study

There is growing evidence that dyslexia may involve difficulty with implicit learning, which hinder learners to acquire spelling skills in a foreign language through instruction. Paradoxically, this exactly how Dutch students learn English at school. This research aims determine if implementing explicit instruction, based on direct comparison between L1 and L2 spelling, facilitates the development of dyslexic as Foreign Language. The participants were 40 Dutch-speaking secondary-school independently diagnosed (age 12–14). Twenty attended their regular lessons (comparison group), whereas 20 other received contrastive instruction once week for eight weeks (intervention group). results reveal during intervention group developed faster than those control group, they remained same level five after intervention. These findings suggest even relatively short rules cross-linguistic comparisons has facilitative effect language.