Modifying an EFL Course to Accommodate Students with Dyslexic Tendencies

Abstract

University students in Japan may have undiagnosed dyslexia or exhibit dyslexic tendencies (DT) in the foreign language (FL) classroom. However, support for these students has been limited due to the relatively low rate of awareness of dyslexia by teachers of foreign languages and university administration. Examples and descriptions of practical ways in which class materials and assessments can be modified to support university students with DT would be beneficial to FL teachers but is limited in published research. In this paper, I will discuss the results of an action research project I conducted over two years. I modified an existing course in hospitality English in order to support students with DT. Specifically, I adapted supplementary course materials and assessments to align with previously published guidelines. These modifications included formatting changes to supplementary class materials to be more legible and intuitive, and improving fairness in written and verbal assessments. The goal of the paper is to give teachers of foreign languages a practical example of how to efficiently adapt existing course materials to support students with DT.