PRAGMATIC AND LEXICAL SKILLS OF LEARNERS WITH DYSLEXIA AND EFL LEARNING PDF

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  GLORIA CAPPELLI PRAGMATIC AND LEXICAL SKILLS OF LEARNERS WITH DYSLEXIA AND EFL LEARNING 1. Introduction Dyslexia is a specific learning disability caused by difficulties in manipulating phonological segments, which results in an unexpected discrepancy between cognitive abilities and literacy skill...

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GLORIA CAPPELLI PRAGMATIC AND LEXICAL SKILLS OF LEARNERS WITH DYSLEXIA AND EFL LEARNING 1. Introduction Dyslexia is a specific learning disability caused by difficulties in manipulating phonological segments, which results in an unexpected discrepancy between cognitive abilities and literacy skills. It is neurobiological in origin and manifests itself with a variety of symptoms ranging both in quality and severity.1 Its best-known effects are poor decoding and spelling abilities and reduced graphemic competence. However, the International Dyslexia Association lists several secondary consequences, such as «problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge».2 There is no universal agreement on the exact nature and causes of this specific learning difficulty. However, since it impacts first and foremost on the language system, it is necessarily a truly interdisciplinary field of research: a ‘contact zone’ between the neurosciences and theoretical and applied linguistics. In addition, research on dyslexia benefits from studies on literacy and textual interpretation at different levels, which offer a valuable heuristic point of view in identifying critical issues which would otherwise go unnoticed in typicallydeveloping readers. Such interdisciplinary research has highlighted several far from obvious difficulties, including poor executive functioning,3                                                                                                                         1 F. Ramus, Neurobiology of Dyslexia: A Reinterpretation of the Data, «Trends in Neurosciences», 27 (2004), XII, p. 720. 2 https://dyslexiaida.org/definition-of-dyslexia/, last accessed October 29, 2017. 3 S.F. Baker, J.L. Ireland, The Link between Dyslexic Traits, Executive Functioning, Impulsivity and Social Self-Esteem among an Offender and

 

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issues in working memory capacity,4 processing speed and skill automatisation,5 vocabulary storage and retrieval,6 text comprehension,7 and in the control of attentive resources.8 Other studies have reported social and emotional problems, and a deficit in pragmatic abilities.9 However, these features are not shared by all people with dyslexia. It is therefore quite problematic to outline a generalizable cognitive and communicative profile of dyslexic learners. Nevertheless,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Non-Offender Sample, «International Journal of Law Psychiatry», 30 (2007), p. 492. 4 A.D. Baddeley, Working Memory, Oxford University Press, Oxford 1998; S.E. Gathercole et al., Phonological Memory and Vocabulary Development during the Early School Years: A Longitudinal Study, «Developmental Psychology», 28 (1992), V, p. 887. 5 R.I. Nicolson, A.J. Fawcett, Dyslexia, Learning and the Brain, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 2008. 6 G. Cappelli, S. Noccetti, Teaching Specialized Vocabulary to Dyslexic Adult Second-Language Learners: A Proposal for Multimodal Lexical Input Enhancement, in V. Bonsignori and B. Crawford Camiciottoli (eds.), Multimodality across Communicative Settings, Discourse Domains and Genres, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne 2016, pp. 3764; J. Kormos, A.M. Smith, Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences, Multilingual Matters, Bristol 2012.   7 M.J. Ransby, H.L. Swanson, Reading Comprehension Skills of Young Adults with Childhood Diagnoses of Dyslexia, «Journal of Learning Disabilities», 36 (2003), VI, p. 538; F. Simmons, C. Singleton, The Reading Comprehension Abilities of Dyslexic Students in Higher Education, «Dyslexia», 6 (2000), III, p. 178. 8 M. Lallier et al., Auditory and Visual Stream Segregation in Children and Adults: an Assessment of the Amodality Assumption of the ‘Sluggish Attentional Shifting’ Theory of Dyslexia, «Brain Research», 1302 (2009), p. 132. 9 C.B. Griffiths, Pragmatic Abilities in Adults with and without Dyslexia: A Pilot Study, «Dyslexia», 13 (2007), p. 276; T.R. Miles, D. Gilroy, E.A. Du Pre, Dyslexia at College, Routledge, London 2007;     R.   Cardillo, R. Basso Garcia, I.C. Mammarella, C. Cornoldi, Pragmatics of Language and Theory of Mind in Children with Dyslexia with Associated Language Difficulties or Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, «Applied Neuropsychology: Child» (2017), p. 1; G. Cappelli, S. Noccetti, G. Arcara, V. Bambini, Pragmatic Competence and its Relationship with the Linguistic and Cognitive Profile of Young Adults with Dyslexia, «Dyslexia», 24 (2018), p. 294.

 

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getting a better understanding of such a profile is a crucial step towards effective and inclusive foreign language (FL) and literature teaching, since FL learning is often described as one of the most challenging experiences for people with dyslexia and associated difficulties.10 There is of course no evidence to support a «foreign language learning disability»,11 but the deficits in the aforementioned domains can explain some of the problems encountered by these learners in the L2 classroom. The latter are presumably non-specific to the development of the second language system and mirror difficulties observed in the native language system as well.12 Much research on dyslexia focuses on the phonological deficit and its impact on L2 spelling, reading and listening comprehension.13 The present discussion tackles the role of                                                                                                                         10

I. Lundberg, Second Language Learning and Reading with the Additional load of Dyslexia, «Annals of Dyslexia», 52 (2002), I, p. 165; R. L. Sparks, Is there a ‘Disability’ for Learning a Foreign Language?, «Journal of Learning Disabilities», 39 (2006), VI, p. 544; J. Nijakowska, Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom, Multilingual Matters, Bristol 2010; J. Kormos, A.M. Smith, Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences, Multilingual Matters, Bristol-Toronto 2012; E. Schneider, M. Crombie, Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning, David Fulton Publishers, London 2012; M. Daloiso, Supporting Learners with Dyslexia in the ELT Classroom, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017. 11 R.L. Sparks, Is there a ‘Disability’ for Learning a Foreign Language?, «Journal of Learning Disabilities», 39 (2006), VI, p. 544; Id., Myths about Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities, «Foreign Language Annals», 49 (2016), II, p. 252. 12 R.L. Sparks, Myths about Foreign Language Learning and Learning Disabilities, p. 252. 13 T. Helland, R. Kaasa, Dyslexia in English as a Second Language, «Dyslexia», 11 (2005), I, p. 41; E. Soroli, G. Szenkovits, F. Ramus, Exploring Dyslexics' Phonological Deficit III: Foreign Speech Perception and Production, «Dyslexia», 16 (2010), IV, p. 318; P. Palladino, I. Bellagamba, M. Ferrari, C. Cornoldi, Italian Children with Dyslexia Are also Poor in Reading English Words, but Accurate in Reading English Pseudowords. «Dyslexia», 19 (2013), III, p. 165; P. Palladino, D. Cismondo, M, Ferrari, I. Bellagamba, C. Cornoldi, L2 Spelling Errors in Italian Children with Dyslexia, «Dyslexia», 22 (2016), II, p. 158; C. Dimililer, E. Istek,

 

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lexical and pragmatic abilities in English as a foreign language (EFL). Section 2 introduces the complex nature of pragmatic abilities and their importance in some common foreign language learning tasks. Sections 3 and 4 discuss the preliminary results of ongoing research on pragmatic and lexical skills in a group of adult EFL learners. Section 5 draws some conclusions on the possible impact of impairment in these areas in the EFL classroom and offers suggestions for inclusive English language and literature teaching.

2. Pragmatic Abilities and the Foreign Language Classroom Pragmatic competence is crucial for successful communication, since the ability to perform appropriately for the context depends on it. Efficient pragmatic processing requires performing many linguistic and cognitive tasks, including correctly matching forms to functions, choosing the appropriate register for the situation, and drawing inferences to recover non-literal and implicitly communicated information.14 These are usually carried out automatically and go unnoticed in non-pathological conditions. Nevertheless, they require the rapid integration of linguistic and extra-linguistic contextual information and come with complex processing demands involving attention, memory, and mind-reading and inferential abilities.15 For this reason, pragmatic skills can be impaired in non-typically developing people who have a deficit in one of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Experiences of a Dyslexic Child in an English as a Foreign Language Class, «Quality & Quantity» (2018), pp. 1-8. 14 M. Ariel, Defining Pragmatics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010; V. Bambini, Neuropragmatics: A Foreword, «Italian Journal of Linguistics», 22 (2010), I, p. 1; B. Stemmer, Neuropragmatics in the 21st Century, «Brain and Language», 71 (2000), I, p. 233. 15 B.G. Bara, Cognitive Pragmatics, MIT Press, Cambridge (MA) 2010; D. Sperber, D. Wilson, Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind-Reading, «Mind and Language», 17 (2002), p. 3.  

 

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these areas, with consequences for a range of everyday-life operations which are often taken for granted. Pragmatic deficits, or ‘dyshyponoia’,16 have been observed in various clinical populations.17 They have been associated with the inability to generate inferences, a tendency towards literal interpretation of non-literal language, difficulties in interpreting metaphors and idiomatic expressions, and the inability to grasp emotive aspects of language and the global meaning of a story from excerpts. They have also been linked to limited sensitivity to contextual cues and anomalies in language production such as verbosity or excessive synthesis, inappropriate language, and altered prosody in the most severe cases.18 Pragmatic abilities play a crucial role in the language classroom and encompass different types of skills. On the one hand, social pragmatics is necessary for appropriate social behaviour, for instance in choosing appropriate register or to regulate speech (e.g. initiating conversation, taking turns, etc.). These aspects are vastly cultural-specific and can be explicitly taught. On the other hand, some of the underlying processes which allow people to recognise contextual cues are cognitive in nature and depend on the many and varied cognitive skills mentioned above. Inferential abilities, for instance, can be described as the ability to construct meaning by filling in information which is not explicitly provided in the communicative exchange. In other words, in non-pathological situations, we reach the intended meaning by deriving information from the context and                                                                                                                         16

M. Paradis, The Other Side of Language: Pragmatic Competence, «Journal of Neurolinguistics», 11 (1998), I-II, p. 1. 17 Id., Cerebral Division of Labour in Verbal Communication, in D. Sandra, J.O. Östman, J. Verschueren (eds.), Cognition and Pragmatics, Vol. 3, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2009, pp. 53-77; L. Cummings (ed.), Research in Clinical Pragmatics, Springer, Berlin 2017. 18 M. Paradis, Cerebral Division if Labour in Verbal Communication.

 

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integrating it with linguistic and encyclopaedic knowledge. Bridging and elaborative inferences are performed frequently and (apparently) effortlessly. Many activities carried out during foreign language learning rely on the learners’ efficient pragmatic processing. Inferring rules and regularities from examples, resolving reference ambiguity, deriving novel wordmeanings from the context, many reading and listening comprehension tasks (including those found in standardized tests), and appreciating figurative language in literary works are all examples of classroom activities which require good pragmatic skills, as well as vocabulary knowledge and wellfunctioning working memory. Difficulties in some of these activities, as well as in phonological and syntactic processing, have been reported with reference to EFL learners with dyslexia.19 For this reason, investigating pragmatic and lexical abilities in this population seems relevant in order to improve our understanding of the obstacles on the path to successful foreign language learning.

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F. Simmons, C. Singleton, The Reading Comprehension Abilities of Dyslexic Students in Higher Education;   J. Nijakowska, Dyslexia in the Foreign Language Classroom; J. Kormos, A.M. Smith, Teaching Languages to Students with Specific Learning Differences; E. Schneider, M. Crombie, Dyslexia and Foreign Language Learning, 2012; A. Cardinaletti, F. Volpato, On the Comprehension and Production of Passive Sentences and Relative Clauses by Italian University Students with Dyslexia, in E. Di Domenico, C. Hamann and S. Matteini (eds.), Structures, Strategies and Beyond: Studies in Honour of Adriana Belletti, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam and Philadelphia 2015, pp. 279-302; H. F. Pedersen et al., Reading Processes of University Students with Dyslexia – An Examination of the Relationship between Oral Reading and Reading Comprehension, «Dyslexia», 22 (2016), IV, p. 305.

 

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3. A Pilot Study on Pragmatic Competence in Young Adults with Dyslexia This section discusses recent ongoing research carried out by a team composed of linguists and psychologists of the University of Pisa, the IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris Pisa and the University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia aimed at investigating pragmatic competence and its impact on EFL in learners with dyslexia.20 The largest body of research on dyslexia focuses on children’s spelling and reading abilities, morphological and phonological awareness and syntactic competence. Research on adults with dyslexia has seen a rapid growth in the past decade.21 To the best of my knowledge, only a few studies have focused on dyslexia and pragmatic abilities22 and none has discussed the impact of pragmatic issues on FL learning. Greater attention has been devoted to dyslexia and lexical abilities.23                                                                                                                        

20 Since the focus of the present paper is to discuss possible effects of pragmatic and lexical issues in the EFL classroom, the preliminary results of the pilot study are discussed in general terms. A thorough discussion is available in G. Cappelli, S. Noccetti, G. Arcara, V. Bambini, Pragmatic Competence, p. 294 21 M. Rice, G. Brooks, Developmental Dyslexia in Adults: A Research Review, National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy, London 2004; E. Ghidoni et. al (eds.), Dislessia in età adulta, Edizioni Centro Studi Erickson, Trento 2012; T. Nergård-Nilssen, C. Hulme, Developmental Dyslexia in Adults: Behavioural Manifestations and Cognitive Correlates, «Dyslexia», 20 (2014), III, p. 191. 22 C.B. Griffiths, Pragmatic Abilities in Adults with and without Dyslexia: A Pilot Study; K.H. Lam, C.S.H. Ho, Pragmatic Skills in Chinese Dyslexic Children: Evidence from a Parental Checklist, «Asia Pacific Journal of Developmental Differences», 1 (2014), p. 4; R. Cardillo et al., Pragmatics of Language and Theory of Mind in Children with Dyslexia with Associated Language Difficulties or Nonverbal Learning Disabilities; G. Cappelli, S. Noccetti, G. Arcara, V. Bambini, Pragmatic Competence, p. 294. 23 A. Chen et. al, Individualized Early Prediction of Familial Risk of Dyslexia: A Study of Infant Vocabulary Development, «Frontiers in Psychology», 8 (2017), p. 156; S. van Viersen et al., Delayed Early Vocabulary Development in Children at Family Risk of Dyslexia, «Journal of

 

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The questions that have guided the research deal with the existence of a pragmatic deficit in people with dyslexia, its relation to their verbal and non-verbal cognitive profile and the reflection of these findings on EFL learning in higher education, with special attention to vocabulary acquisition and reading comprehension activities. The study has focused on the inferential skills of the participants and on their ability to understand non-literal language, including proverbs, wellestablished and novel metaphors and humour. For the pilot study, thirty-eight participants were chosen among students at the University of Pisa: 19 young adults (13 F, 6 M; mean age 21) who had received a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia by experienced clinicians and 19 typically-developing controls (14 F, 5 M; mean age 21.58). Bilingualism, major neurological or psychiatric history and the regular consumption of medications for chronic conditions were considered exclusion criteria. All participants were tested for reading and reading comprehension skills, verbal cognition and linguistic competence, working memory and phonological processing, non-verbal cognition skills, Theory of Mind and pragmatic comprehension and production. Pragmatic abilities were tested through the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS) by Arcara and Bambini24 and 5 subtests from the ‘Batteria sul Linguaggio dell’Emisfero Destro Santa Lucia’ (BLED) by Rinaldi, Marangolo and Lauriola.25 The BLED battery includes subtests focusing on comprehension of illustrated and written metaphors, inferences,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Speech, Language, and Hearing Research», 60 (2017), IV, p. 937; R. Wiseheart, L.J. Altmann, Spoken Sentence Production in College Students with Dyslexia: Working Memory and Vocabulary Effects, «International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders», 53 (2018), II, p. 355. 24 G. Arcara, V. Bambini, A Test for the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates (APACS): Normative Data and Psychometric Properties, «Frontiers in Psychology», 7 (2016), p. 70. 25 M.C. Rinaldi, P. Marangolo and M. Lauriola, BLED - Batteria sul Linguaggio dell’emisfero Destro SantaLucia, Giunti, Firenze 2006.  

 

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humour, and requests. The APACS battery also includes understanding of humour and metaphors, but, in addition, it tests narrative memory and productive pragmatic skills (i.e. interview, salient element identification in scene descriptions, explanation of figurative language). The performance of the participants with dyslexia was consistently worse than the performance of the control group in all tasks of both batteries, which evidences a generalized pragmatic inefficiency. In some cases, the performance of the focus group reached significance level, as in figurative language comprehension and in narrative memory and comprehension in the APACS battery. The APACS composite scores showed that 35% of the participants performed under cut-off values, which means that more than a third of the focus group showed pragmatic impairment. This figure reached 84% in the Figurative Language 2...