A Study of Developmental Dyslexia in Middle School Foreign Language Learners in Iran

Dyslexia, a reading disorder, is considered as the most common language disability in which individuals experience difficulties with language processing and specifically with reading. In spite of its widespread nature in Iran, not too many studies have been carried out on dyslexia compared to English-speaking countries. Also, the available studies have mostly focused on dyslexia in native language rather than in foreign language context so the findings in L2 context are not rich. The aim of the present study is to investigate whether Iranian dyslexic students have difficulties learning foreign languages (English and Arabic) and also to highlight the areas in which these individuals show the most difficulty. By the help of a questionnaire, information was gathered about the situation of dyslexic students as foreign language learners in middle schools. The findings showed that Iranian dyslexic students encounter many difficulties in learning English and Arabic as foreign languages and they are significantly weak in spelling, reading and phonological processing compared to normal students.