Learning Difficulties

Reading English is the most difficult thing

'I did not have any difficulties with English when we started learning it. It was in second grade of elementary school and we just talked and sang in English. My troubles started in third grade when we began to learn to read English. I could not learn how to read English and I am not able to read it' (Yuval's pre-intervention interview).

Yuval was not exceptional in experiencing difficulties in reading English as a foreign language (FL) among the rest of the research participants. The rest of the five participants shared this difficulty as well and all of them expressed it in their pre-intervention reading programme interviews. 'Reading is the most difficult thing. That's why I fail all the unseen tests', Kefir said when asked to tell, in his pre-intervention interview, about his English studies from when he first began until the beginning of the research intervention reading programme. 'I have a huge difficulty with reading English,' were Noah's words in her pre-intervention interview when she was asked to tell about her experience concerning learning English as an FL. Shuval claimed in her pre-intervention interview that 'it is easier for [her] to understand a text when someone reads it to [her],

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but [she] cannot read it by [herself]'. Aviv and Tal used similar words to express this concept.

It is not surprising that all of the six participants reported in their pre- intervention interviews to have reading difficulties in English as an FL, as all of them had been assessed for learning disabilities by a professional assessor or an educational psychologist, being found to be dyslexic.

As already discussed dyslexia remains a problematic classification because of the vagaries and antagonisms surrounding its definition. However, there is a consensus about statistics which show that five to ten per cent of school age children fail to learn to read in their own language in spite of average intelligence, adequate environment and educational opportunities (The US Department of Education's report, 1997; Habib, 2000; The Director's Annual Circular of the Ministry of Education in Israel, 2003; The British Dyslexia Association, 2004; Anthony and Francis, 2005 and the Dyslexia Handbook Revised, 2007, 2010). This point is supported by Shaywitz (1998) who characterises dyslexia as an unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults who otherwise possess the intelligence, motivation and schooling considered necessary for accurate and fluent reading. Moreover, Lerner (1989) emphasises this point by saying that reading disability is the most common of the learning disabilities, affecting 80 per cent of all those identified as learning disabled.

Moreover, research conducted by Ganschow and Sparks (1991) concluded that it would seem reasonable to anticipate that some of the difficulties faced by dyslexic learners when learning to read their first language (L1) will affect their ability to learn to read a foreign language as 'a link exists between native language and FL learning potential' (Ganschow and Sparks 1991, p 4). In other words, students with dyslexia have difficulties when learning to read a foreign language which are similar to those they have

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had when learn to read their first language. For this reason the six participants were not assessed for learning disabilities in English, since the Ministry of Education does not demand an additional assessment for learning disabilities in English for students who have already been assessed in Hebrew. The rationale for not demanding an additional assessment in English as a foreign language is based upon Ganschow and Sparks' (1991) and Sparks

et al'

'

The six research participants fit into the statistics and classifications mentioned above since all of them had reading difficulties in Hebrew, their first language, as reported by their parents and concluded in their assessments carried out by a professional assessor or an educational psychologist. Moreover, all the six participants reported, in their pre- intervention interviews, that reading English is the most difficult thing for them. This subjective participants' observation is triangulated by my documentation of the pre-intervention assessment scores of the six participants, concerning reading of words and full texts (Appendix 10).

Reading comprehension is the most difficult thing

Deutsch (2005) conducted a study where she found that English as a foreign language 'dyslexic students', in grade nine in Israel, lacked the skills to cope with reading comprehension tests (unseen tests). These students did not have the tools to achieve high scores in reading comprehension tests as they did not have effective reading strategies to guide them on their reading comprehension. Deutsch (2005) claimed that the students in her study found reading for information easy in Hebrew, their first language; however, it was a difficult task for them in English as a foreign language. The reading comprehension tests caused anxiety and a sense of failure for the students who did not have the skills to cope with the tests and scored poorly. Deutsch (2005) concluded that reading in

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English as an FL was difficult for the 'dyslexic students' in her research; moreover, reading comprehension tests (unseen tests) in English as an FL was even a more difficult task for these dyslexic Israeli students.

In her pre-intervention reading programme interview Tal commented

'I always fail all the unseen tests because I do not understand what I read. The problem is that almost all of the English tests are unseen tests where I need to understand what I read. That is why I fail English in school'.

Tal's comment referred to unseen tests which are the reading comprehension tests mentioned by Deutsch (2005). The six participants reported, in their pre-intervention reading programme interviews, to have a difficulty with reading English as an FL as discussed in the previous section. The reading difficulty led all of them to another difficulty - reading comprehension. Kefir in his pre-intervention interview summarised it by saying 'my biggest problem is reading and reading comprehension'.

Effective reading comprehension in the first language or in a foreign language is based on effective acquisition of basic reading skills. The former depends on the latter, where the former – reading comprehension – is the ultimate goal of reading (Eskey 1988). No wonder Aviv tied in his pre-intervention interview both difficulties in reading and reading comprehension together by saying 'It is very difficult for me to read. And if I manage to read I do not understand what I read'. Noah in her pre- intervention interview expressed the same idea by saying: ' Even if I read some words I do not understand anything. I am sure that I do not read them correctly'.

Even though the research participants were assessed as 'dyslexic students', all of them studied in an inclusive EFL classroom which meant

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that they were given the same tests as the rest of the 'non-dyslexic students' in their class and took the same matriculation examination in English as all the students in Israel in order to be granted a matriculation certificate. For this reason the participants faced their reading and reading comprehension difficulty in all of the EFL lessons in school and in most of their English tests due to the fact that, as already mentioned in the introduction to this study, 70% of the matriculation examination in English as a foreign language in Israel is based on reading comprehension. To prepare the Israeli student for the English matriculation examination the English teachers have to train them for reading comprehension skills. To do so a large proportion of the English lessons are devoted to teaching and exercise reading comprehension techniques, which are later tested in most of the English tests; by doing this the English teachers follow the demands of the Ministry of Education in Israel concerning the curriculum of teaching English as a foreign language.

As mentioned in the introduction to this research, in 2001 the Ministry of Education in Israel set new national standards in English as a foreign language education. The rational for the new curriculum was that on the verge of the 21st century English has become the main language in the world (Abbot, 1999), and has based its status in Israel as the first official foreign language (Ministry of education in Israel, 1996). Israelis use the English language for global communication, international trade, tourism, internet, E-learning and research in higher education. As a language, English is considered as the most valuable possession for an Israeli (State of Israel Ministry of Education, 2001). The Israeli student cannot be accepted into any of the universities in Israel without being granted a matriculation certificate. In order to be granted such a certificate it is a must to pass the matriculation examination in English as a foreign language (FL). However, most of the faculties in the Israeli universities

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demand a matriculation certificate where the level of English is at least four points. Moreover, to be accepted into medicine and law school in all of the Israeli universities students have to be granted a matriculation certificate where the level of English is five points. The matriculation examination in English as an FL in Israel is built of five modular points. Table 1 in the introduction chapter explains the structure of the English matriculation examinations in Israel.

As illustrated in table 1 at the end of the eleventh grade of high school the Israeli student has to pass module D if they are taking four points English matriculation examination or module F if they are taking the five points English matriculation examination. By the end of the twelfth grade of high school the Israeli student has to pass module E if they are taking four points English matriculation examination or module G if they are taking the five points English matriculation examination.

All of the six research participants were aware of their reading comprehension difficulty and all of them expressed their worries in their pre-intervention interviews. These data were triangulated with the participants' pre-intervention reading assessment scores (Appendix 10) which confirmed the participants' observation.

At the time the data were being collected Yuval was studying in eighth grade of junior high school still having two years ahead of her for module C, as she was planning to take the four points English matriculation examination. However, she was already failing English in school due to the fact that the tests she was given by her English teacher were mainly reading comprehension tests, as demanded by the English as an FL curriculum designed by the ministry of education in Israel. Yuval expressed in her pre-intervention interview, her reading comprehension

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difficulty saying that 'Even if I try to read I do not understand anything. That is why I prefer someone to read the text for me'.

Kefir was studying in grade nine of junior high school still having a year ahead of him for module C, as he was also planning to take the four points English matriculation examination. Kefir was already worried about the matriculation examination in English and expressed it in his pre- intervention interview by saying that reading comprehension in English was his biggest problem. Kefir was failing the English tests in school which most of them were on reading comprehension in English as an FL.

Noah's situation was no different from Kefir's. Noah was also studying in grade nine of junior high school, still having a year ahead of her for module E, as she was hoping to be able to take the five points English matriculation examination. Noah wanted to be granted eventually the five points' matriculation examination in English so as to be able to study in any Israeli university without being limited in her acceptance by any faculty in the future. Much to Noah's frustration she was unable to read English at the time I was collecting the data for this study.

Shuval was studying in grade tenth of high school. Her situation was bad as she was taking module C that very same year. She was planning to accomplish the four points' matriculation examination in English; however, her difficulty in reading English was going to be an obstacle. She summarised her difficulty in reading by saying in her pre-intervention interview 'I fail all the tests because I cannot read English nor understand the texts in the English tests'.

Aviv and Tal were both in the same difficult situation regarding their reading comprehension in English. Both of them were studying in grade eleven of high school and had already failed module E in grade ten. Both of them were planning to accomplish the five points' matriculation

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examination in English as Aviv was planning to become a medical doctor and Tal a lawyer. As mentioned above, in ordered to be accepted to the medicine faculty or the law one in any of the universities in Israel, a student must be granted a matriculation certificate with a five points' matriculation examination in English as an FL. Both of them were very worried that they would not be able to fulfil their dream of becoming a doctor and a lawyer, however, they were aware of their difficulty in reading and reading comprehension in English and commented in their pre-intervention interview that they 'always fail all the unseen tests because [they] do not understand what [they] read'.

As discussed in the theoretical perspectives chapter Broughton

et al

(1978) claim, when referring to reading comprehension, that reading is a complex skill which involves a series of lesser skills. The first is the ability to recognise stylised shapes, which are the letters. The second is the ability to correlate the letters with language. The third skill is the ability to correlate the words as sound with the meanings, which those words symbolise. On the other hand, to achieve fluent reading, readers bring their knowledge of the language and their knowledge of the world to bear, build up expectations and make predictions about what is to come.

When referring to reading comprehension in a foreign language, English in the case of the present study, I agree with Eskey’s (1988) view and Deutsch's (2005) conclusion, which are based on the fact that the foreign language reader will have weaker linguistic competence than the first language reader and will therefore have less ability to draw on the range of cues, which are available to readers in a first language. There is no doubt that this point is supported by the research participants tying together in their pre-intervention interviews their difficulties in reading and reading comprehension in English as an FL.

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