An informative Personal and Professional Development Seminar on Dyslexia organised by the English Studies Department
Κολέγιο CITY College
Main Campus, Thessaloniki, Greece
24 October 2018

An informative Personal and Professional Development Seminar on Dyslexia organised by the English Studies Department

The first Personal and Professional Development Seminar of the English Studies Department of the University of Sheffield International Faculty CITY College to inaugurate the Autumn semester seminar series took place on Tuesday, 16 October and focused on “Teaching English to Learners with Dyslexia: from Theory to Practice.”

An informative Personal and Professional Development Seminar on Dyslexia organised by the English Studies Department of the University of Sheffield International Faculty CITY College

Our distinguished speakers for the event were: Ms Viveta Lymberaki and Ms Xenia Konstantinopoulou, co-founders, owners and Directors of Studies and Special Language Disorder teachers of the English Language Centre “My Way” – the first English language centre in Northern Greece exclusively for children with Specific Learning Differences.

It is truly inspiring how Ms Lymberaki and Ms Konstantinopoulou emphasize the fact that these ELT learners do not exhibit learning difficulties, but learning differences. In other words, to maximize their learning potential, educators have to become familiar with these differences and employ respective and varied teaching methodologies and techniques. Of course, such teaching would be highly enriched with a specialized background in neurolinguistics according to our speakers.

An informative Personal and Professional Development Seminar on Dyslexia organised by the English Studies Department of the University of Sheffield International Faculty CITY College

In addition to raising awareness towards various misconceptions of dyslexia, Ms Konstantinopoulou and Ms Lymberaki focused on the specific case of Greek students learning English and placed emphasis on the different linguistic systems of English and Greek. Hence, attention ought to be paid to phonological awareness, creating a personal picture dictionary, and using mind maps. Multi-sensory teaching methods essentially assist students with SpLDs to adapt more smoothly to mainstream classrooms.

Given that the matter of Dyslexia is still held by some as taboo, it is important to raise awareness that it does not pose as an impairment or difficulty but simply signals that students learn differently.

 

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