A View of Dyslexia in Context: Implications for Understanding Differences in Essay Writing Experience Amongst Higher Education Students Identified as Dyslexic

Abstract

This article applies socio-cultural theories to explore how differences in essay writing experience are constituted for a group of students identified as dyslexic. It reports on a qualitative study with eleven student writers, seven of whom are formally identified as dyslexic, from the schools of archaeology, history and philosophy in a 'traditional' UK university. Semi-structured interviews before, during and after writing a coursework essay revealed well-documented dyslexia-related difficulties and also strong differences in how writing was experienced. The multiple and fluid dimensions that construct these differences suggest the importance of position within the context, previous and developing writing and learning experience, and metacognitive, meta-affective and metalinguistic awareness. They also suggest tensions between specialist and inclusive policies in relation to writing pedagogy for students identified as dyslexic.

The Inclusion of Students with Dyslexia in Higher Education: A Systematic Review Using Narrative Synthesis

“…Some students selected the most productive times and places to study to maximize one's own ability to learn (1; 12). The latter set of strategies also has meta-affective relevance, insofar as it helped to reduce distractions and create a 'comfort zone' (Carter & Sellman, 2013) in which feelings of competence are generated. These strategies reveal students' knowledge of their own abilities, weaknesses and preferred learning styles.…”

Beyond cognitive deficit: the everyday lived experience of dyslexic students at university

“…as Hacking (2002, 358) argues, the socially produced aspects of a phenomenon or object are no less 'real' than those apparently produced by their inner nature. While there are some thorough and insightful studies which have focused upon experiences of dyslexic people in post-16 education, these often explore breadth over depth of experience (for example, studies with larger sample sizes such as Blace et al 2011;Carter and Sellman 2013;Farmer, riddick, and Sterling 2002;Griffin and Pollak 2009;madriaga 2007;Pollak 2005). other rich and insightful studies (for example, Collinson and Penketh 2009;mcnulty 2003;and Palfreman-Kay 2000), which do look in depth at a small number of student experiences of support, are over 10 years old.…”

Confronting Lexical Choice and Error Distribution in Written French: New Insights into the Linguistic Insecurity of Students with Dyslexia

“…Indeed, the scientific literature considers dysorthographia as a disorder consubstantial with dyslexia [12,23]. Nor is dyslexia limited to a reading and spelling problem [24,25]; it involves difficulties related to textual production, impacting syntax, lexicon, high-level processes, etc. [24,[26][27][28].…”

“…Nor is dyslexia limited to a reading and spelling problem [ 24 , 25 ]; it involves difficulties related to textual production, impacting syntax, lexicon, high-level processes, etc. [ 24 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”