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Phonological Errors in English among Dyslexic Learners in Selected Primary Schools in Penang: Phoneme, Syllable and Word Levels

Ezleena Mustafa Kamal

Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities, Volume 28, Issue S2, December 2020

Keywords: Dyslexia, English as a second language (ESL), phoneme, phonological deficit, syllable

Published on: 18 March 2020

Dyslexia is a learning difficulty primarily characterised by the deficit of phonological awareness which includes representing, storing and retrieving speech sounds. Past research has identified the influence of dyslexia in learning English as a second language (ESL). Presently in Malaysia, data that link dyslexia and phonology in English as L2 is scarce. Thus, this study aimed to identify the phonological errors, specifically at the phoneme, syllable and word levels in English among dyslexic learners in selected primary schools in Penang. It also differentiated phonological errors made by dyslexic and non-dyslexic learners in the same context. This study adopted the phonological awareness assessment that consisted of tasks at different phonological levels. The sample included seven dyslexic learners aged ten, and seven non-dyslexic learners with matched age. Overall, the findings suggest that dyslexic learners made significantly more errors than non-dyslexic learners based on the average scores of each task, with the lowest average score of only 28% in the non-word reading task. The results also reveal that dyslexia posed substantial problems in English as L2 learning, as well as the need for structured language programmes for dyslexic learners.

ISSN 0128-7702

e-ISSN 2231-8534

Article ID

JSSH(S)-1255-20

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