This site is about the personal and professional experience of a dyslexic Master in Ethology and Neurobiology who ended up teaching English and Dutch in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and on‑line.
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About the site name
The name Help the English Language-teacher is Dyslexic (held.com.br) was chosen, much in order to make it easy for co-dyslexics to remember, find and refer to this site. Hopefully it worked.
One of the problems of being dyslexic is the name of the condition. To spell it correctly is near to impossible for the people who have the condition.
From personal experience and contact with other dyslexics, I came to the conclusion that an abbreviation made up of first letters of words, in general, is not so difficult to remember. An abbreviation sounding like a word also helps. That the abbreviated name ends in a 'd' is problematic for dyslexics but knowing it is the 'd' of dyslectia or dislektia or dyslexia or disleksia or so, helps them to figure it out, when writing the abbreviation is necessary.
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About how I teach and why I teach that way
Teachers who themselves have learning disabilities tend to be among the best teachers. They know how it is to have difficulty to do what is easy for others or to not even be able to do it.
They know how it is to be subject to ways of teaching that are proven to be effective for everybody ... except for them.
They also know that, very often, it is possible to help learners with
learning
problems by finding different ways of learning. They also know that sometimes for some learners certain things are nearly impossible to learn, without this being the learners fault.
My teaching is to a big extent based on using what worked for me as a learner and avoiding what didn't. Not because it must work for others because it did for me but because it seems probable. After all, it is not so that what is good for the learning process of a dyslectic must also be good for persons who are not dyslectic. I try. What does work for my pupils, I continue to use. What doesn't, I stop using. The only way to know is by trying.
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Adapted communicative language teaching
From the moment I heard of communicative language teaching, the idea attracted me. However, seeing how it was put into practice in the language courses where I worked, I got very disappointed. Therefore I included the good elements in my teaching to offer my learners the best I can.Here are some important adaptations. The following are some of the adaptations I came up with. Using roleplay-simulations of real life and work situations. I do what I can to turn my classes into a simulation of real life. Rather than telling my pupils that they made a mistake, I react in a way most regular speakers of English or Dutch would. I make a big effort to prevent my class from looking like a class and likewise making the classroom look very different from a common classroom. Using texts about subjects my pupils show or mention to have interest in for practicing pronunciation, presenting vocabulary which is useful for them, offering subjects to discuss. I stimulate my pupils to bring such texts themselves for the same purpose.
More details at my sister site.
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Can I teach dyslexics?
What if I need to teach a dyslexic person?
Often I have worried about this. Would I be able to teach English or Dutch to another dyslexic person or would it be a disaster?
To my luck, I never had to decide if I should refuse a pupil for that reason. I had several pupils who, after some time, told me they were dyslexic. And of course I told them I was. Nor my pupils nor me
experienced problems with that.
Dyslexics need to learn how they can diminish the effect of their dyslexia in their language learning and performance. Very likely they need to learn some of the things I needed to learn in order to diminish the effects of me being dyslexic on my language teaching.
The knowledge I have of dyslexia,
I can use to help language learners with problems related to dyslexia.
This knowledge comes from different sources. Some comes from my personal experience and from contact with co-dyslexics, like the ones I met when I was active at the Dutch association of and for dyslexics Stichting Woortblind, now part of Impuls & Woortblind . There is the knowledge that comes from my masters in Neurobiology and Ethology. I also learn a lot by talking with whomever might provide useful information and from reading around. All of this gives me a good idea of what the problems of dyslexia can be, what the advantages can be, how to best deal with the problems and profit from the advantages.
Using this knowledge I avoid things which can be expected to be of little help to dyslexic language learners. It helps me to find and offer that what probably is beneficial to them. When available resources don't work well enough I use this knowledge to develop alternatives.
Fore these reasons, I am confident that, rather than my being dyslexic presents a problem in teaching languages to dyslexic learners, it is an advantage.
In this section you can find the main reasons why I started and maintain this site.
For dyslexics and people who live with them
It is always difficult to feel different from other people, especially when this is because of having difficulty or not being able to do what is easy for others. Many dyslexics feel like that. Having contact with others who have the same kind of problems can help to feel less lonely. It can be a relief.
On this site I want to help other dyslexics by talking about my experience, offering information and ideas.
For scientists and others interested in the subject
Some people offer their brain to science after their death so scientists can do research on it.
With this site I am offering an insight into my mind while I am still alive. In the book An Anthropologist on March, Oliver Sacks explains why and how case descriptions are important in medical and health sciences.
The idea is that what is written here can be seen as an auto-case-description written by a person who is dyslexic, teacher of foreign languages, neurobiologist and ethologist.
To come to a good analysis of something, only an outsider's view is not enough. One needs an insiders view as well. From what I see, most studies about dyslexia are done by non-dyslexics. They are studies based on outsiders' views. An auto case description like this, hopefully, provides a good and usable insider's view which can contribute to more valid research.
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To explain about teaching techniques and resources I developed
One of the reasons for this site is to show my work as a teacher of English and Dutch, including techniques and materials I developed. Another one is so potential pupils can find me and decide if they would like to try classes with me. It was for these same reasons that I started my first site www.tonvanhattum.com.br but the certainty of having spelling mistakes in my texts and the effect this likely has on potential pupils made me reluctant to publish on it. The name and content of this site explain the spelling mistakes and much more.
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Developed language teaching techniques and resourses
Below some of the teaching techniques and resourses I have developed. They result from trying to provide better teaching by, among other things, analising difficulties I had in my learning and those I see my pupils have.
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Repetition
It is amazing how repetition, including drilling, is still commonly used in language teaching while its efficiency is very low.
The text
Learning, Memorising, Repeating, Alternatives offers an analyses of classical repetition and gives alternatives, based on my experience as learner and teacher of foreign languages who has dyslexia.
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False Homonyms, Misleading Cognates
False homonyms cause language learners problems which are similar to those of misleading cognates but they appear to be more persistent. More about this in
False Homonyms, Misleading Cognates, Concept Splitting.
The explanations and examples in this text
have helped my pupils to drastically reduce the problem.
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Language teaching resourses
At the following pages a selection of the language teaching resources I produced are available. They are free for language teachers and learners to download.
I am not going to say that you should stop looking around because I am the best teacher in the world ... but ... if you are looking for a good teacher of English or Dutch for you, you could start by having a look at the arguments on this page, see the rest of this site, if you wish look around my sister site www.tonvanhattum.com.br
. Compare what you see with information about other teachers and then decide whom you choose. And better still, set up a meeting with me, try how it is to have class with me.
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What is obvious
Some of the things I write here may be too obvious for some.
For several reasons I decided to not worry about that. What is obvious for most may be not so obvious for some. The inverted is also true. Something that is very extraordinary for one may be very obvious to others. What is obvious for a person with one type of neuro-mental configuration may be very not obvious for someone with another neuro-mental configuration.
Moreover, the obvious has always bothered me.
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Seeing what one studies
How can others study something that is in my mind,
my mind and my thinking to a certain extent being the same. How well can they see it.
I'd say I can see a lot of things in my mind that an outsider cannot see.
If you can't think the way I think, how can you really see what I think and how I think it, how can you understand what I think and how I think it. How can one study something one cannot see, one cannot observe, what one doesn't have proper access to.
