FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHER TRAINING ON DYSLEXIA: AN AWARD WINNING DYSTEFL PROJECT AND COURSE

The paper discusses the outcomes of the EU multilateral project ‘DysTEFL – Dyslexia for teachers of English as a foreign language’, the European Language Label 2014 winner, whose major objective involved the development of teacher training materials for EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers on teaching foreign languages to students with dyslexia. Indirectly, the project’s aim was to bolster support for dyslexic foreign language learners in mainstream education through appropriate EFL teacher training. The paper tackles the project’s life circle and shortly presents the project’s approach and design, the strategies and tools developed to monitor timely completion of the assigned tasks, and the procedures used for the execution of the work plan. The paper gives special attention to characterising the project outcomes.

The first major outcome achieved during the project’s lifetime covered conducting a detailed analysis of the EFL teachers’ professional training needs on dyslexia across European countries. In response to the professional training needs articulated by the teachers, the tailor-made DysTEFL training materials were designed. The structure and content of the course on EFL and dyslexia for novice and in-service EFL teachers were developed, which constituted another major objective of the project. The materials were then extensively piloted. The DysTEFL course (the ELTons 2014 Award for Excellence in Course Innovation winner) is freely available for interested parties in three modes: face-to-face (Trainee’s and Trainer’s Booklets with accompanying CD; downloads and printable files), self-study (Internet-based learning modules with sample answers, available at the project website www.dystefl.eu) and distance interactive learning (available at partner institutions’ Moodle platforms). The course uses a task-based approach to teacher training and promotes the model of the teacher as a reflective practitioner. All course units follow the pattern of a reflective circle. The emphasis is put on practical, hands-on tasks. The DysTEFL course comprises 10 units of identical structure, composed of several obligatory and optional tasks and steps. The course structure is flexible enough to be incorporated into the academic terms of different European higher education institutions.