• An understanding of dyslexia
  
  Dyslexic learners show weakness in areas of speed of processing, short-term memory, attention, reading and spelling skills, interpreting and remembering messages, sequencing and organizing information, auditory and/or visual perception, and motor skills (Levine, 1984, Peer, 2000). Turner & Pughe (2003) further note that for dyslexic students, the difficulty is a cognitive one, affecting those language skills associated with the written form. The weaknesses will affect their learning across the school curriculum. Helping the children learn a second language poses a great challenge to English teachers.
  
  
• Identifying dyslexic features and support needs of students
  
  Teachers learnt about the background of students using official diagnostic tests, e.g. LAMK. They were also able to get information from parents, and identify dyslexic features and support needs of their students by devising school-based diagnostic tests. Continuous observation and records of students’ performance, impact of teaching strategies etc. were kept in portfolios.
  
  
• Identifying language learning problems of students
  
  Examples of mistakes in student work may be the result of dyslexic problems of the students. Dysgraphia and difficulty in spelling are more easily identified categories.
  

• Changes to materials, teaching strategies, techniques & methods of instruction

The strategies tried out in the project can be found in the ‘output’ table. This is a summary of the strategies of modification and remediation:

Modification (of task design)

• Simplifying the processes and outcomes of a task. (Dyslexic students are less able to cope with complicated task design.)
• Providing a variety of teaching aids to help students comprehend and retrieve new content
• Minimising the level of language output required in a task
• Allowing choice of roles in group work
• Allowing free choice of topics in writing
• Using different strategies to engage students (e.g. running dictation)

Remediation (of instruction):

• Providing realia for better understanding and to help retrieval of new words
• Providing a real example of a finished product for students. (Dyslexic students tend to process pictorial information more easily.)
• Adapting reading passages to a level appropriate to the ability and interests of the students
• Providing graphic organisers to aid students’ understanding of the target genre. Dyslexic students tend to process information in pictures more easily
  

Impact on learning

When evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies, comments from teachers on particular students were collected:

On one student: "He is weak in English, but now he is willing to try in oral examinations, and he sometimes asks for help from his classmates in lessons. This shows that his learning motivation has improved. He likes writing and sometimes asks for extra exercises. "

On another student: "He has poor long-term recall and is apt to forget what he has learnt quite quickly. He still has low motivation, and does not show much obvious progress. Teachers need to give extra hints in formative assessment like oral work. Teachers need to help him more by explaining the visual cues in worksheets in detail and guiding him to produce answers. "

These examples show that success is not always immediately achievable in every case. The implication is that the strategies attempted may serve particular students better than other students. But teachers' efforts are always worthwhile even though not all students may make the same progress. With the second student for example, teachers found that they knew more about how to help him after a year of work. So they did not feel that their efforts were a waste of time.

The learning portfolios maintained by this year's teachers will be kept for the reference of other teachers who will be teaching the students in the following years. The information will also be useful for the secondary schools which the students will attend.

For other students, the activity design focused on a number of language items and teachers minimised the language components to suit the level of the students. As some students were not able to comprehend task requirements, the tasks were simplified. Various types of writing were tried out in class: book marks, manuals, models, reminders, invitation cards. Students' interest increased and they were more motivated in lessons.

The abilities of students were extended through the process of learning: reflecting on personal experience, e.g. book marks (writing hoped-for changes), expressing preferences (writing about favourite festivals); creativity ( festival stall models, gentle reminders); cooperation and collaboration (recording, presentation), showing artistic talent ( pet manuals, models, book marks).