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Home , Dyslexia, Literacy

Indiana University Undergraduate Journal of 7 (2012) © 2012 IUCJS. All rights reserved.

WRITING SYSTEMS, , AND BILINGUALISM: CROSS-LINGUISTIC ISSUES IN

Laura Dulude

Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences Wellesley College

ABSTRACT

Research suggests that more cases of dyslexia are diagnosed in that speak with highly opaque systems, such as the , the United Kingdom, or , and fewer cases of dyslexia are diagnosed in populations that speak with transparent writing systems, such as Italy, Spain, or . This disparity can be explained by the differences in how dyslexic people and non-dyslexic people read and by the many irregular combinations of letters in opaque that require memorization. Discussing these topics paves the way to considering issues of bilingualism and second language as they are related to dyslexia. ______

Introduction languages. As a result of this ample amount of Dyslexia is a that is often work done on dyslexia in English speakers and misunderstood. The popular perception of what because this is in English, I will talk about dyslexia is or feels like is not in line with the dyslexia in English speakers in this section. reality of dyslexia. Dyslexia becomes an even Dyslexia is defined as “unexpectedly low more complex issue when multiple languages – ability in people who have adequate and with them, multiple writing systems – are , typical schooling, and sufficient brought into play. My goal in this paper is to sociocultural opportunities,” (Siok, Zhendong, explore what dyslexia is, why dyslexia is Jin, Perfetti, and Tan, 2008, pg. 5561). Basically, different in various languages, how issues of dyslexia is only diagnosed after exhausting all multiple orthographies change dyslexia, the other possible reasons for low reading levels. challenges faced by dyslexics who want to learn Although the definition of dyslexia a second language, and the unique issues essentially labels it as a catch-all for poor surrounding bilingualism in dyslexia. readers, dyslexia is a specific impairment in Throughout this exploration, it is inevitable to reading and writing with its own unique discover again and again that the unique characteristics. Most dyslexics struggle with characteristics of different writing systems are issues of phonemic/. Far extremely influential in how dyslexia is from the popular image of letters swirling manifested and even defined. around a page, impossible to catch and thus impossible to decipher, dyslexics actually have What is Dyslexia? difficulty aurally distinguishing the [b] First, it would be valuable to give some from [p] or [m] from [n] and so forth with other background on what dyslexia is and what causes sounds that share multiple features. They also it. Most of the research done on dyslexia has have issues in recognizing what a phoneme is. been written in and about English speakers, Dehaene (2009) gives the example of asking a partly because a large breadth of scholarly work how many sounds they hear in the word is done in English and partly because English “rich” and then asking how many they hear in speakers, as a group, have a high prevalence of the word “pitch.” For “rich,” most children will dyslexia as compared to speakers of other say three (r-i-ch), but for “pitch,” they will say L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 23 four (p-i-t-ch) despite the fact that “rich” and Of the four genes that have been isolated and “pitch” are minimal pairs and sound the same connected with dyslexia, three of them are except for the first phoneme. This confusion involved in neuronal migration. If any of those results from having learned that [tʃ] can be three genes do not give the correct information notated as “ch,” but not yet realizing that it can and the neurons do not migrate how and where also be written “tch,” so the children trick they are supposed to migrate, excess gray matter themselves into believing that they also hear a is formed around the left [t] in “pitch” as a result of a lack of while the child is still in the womb, later causing understanding of to phoneme dyslexia (Dehaene, 2009). conversion. An adult with no language There is more than one type of reading impairment would likely tell you that she hears impairment, so it is important for anyone who is three sounds for both “rich” and “pitch” because studying dyslexia to understand what other she has higher phonemic awareness than a child types of impairment there are, especially in just learning to read. Dyslexics have trouble terms of understanding when dyslexia is with these kinds of phonemic awareness tasks, involved and when the impairment is something generally answering in agreement with the child, else. When I mention dyslexia in this paper, I am and that difficulty is a defining characteristic of talking about developmental dyslexia, which is their condition. genetically transferred in the way that I have Neurologically, Dehaene tells us, when described above and present from birth. dyslexics read, the left middle temporal gyrus is However, there are also many types of acquired activated less than it would be in the brain of a dyslexia that usually result from brain lesions, non-dyslexic reader. To compensate for the low- either in the posterior region of the dominant performing left middle temporal gyrus, dyslexics hemisphere for language (usually the left) or in overuse the left inferior frontal cortex (which the dominant perisylvian region, meaning the contains Broca’s area). However, it does not area around the sylvian fissure (Coslett, 2000): seem to help them decode writing. Upon further examination, researchers have determined that Figure 1: dyslexics have more gray matter in the left middle temporal gyrus than have non-dyslexics. Unfortunately, this larger mass of gray matter seems to actually decrease productivity in the region because it is very unorganized and contains ectopias (misplaced neurons). The quantity of misplaced gray matter correlates positively with the severity of the reading impairment, which seems to go along with the idea that more gray matter in the left middle temporal gyrus decreases reading skill or productivity (2009). gyrus led researchers to the genetic causes of dyslexia, which include abnormal neuronal The Sylvian fissure touches on many of the migration. During , neurons migrate areas used in processing of reading, so the fact from the ventricles to where they are supposed that a lesion in this area would cause reading to end up in the cortex. Ectopias are formed difficulty is unsurprising. when the neurons go too far and “crash” land. There are two main types of acquired Essentially, the excess unorganized gray matter dyslexia: peripheral dyslexia, which is primarily around the left middle temporal gyrus in the an issue of matching writing to stored meaning, brains of dyslexics is formed by neurons that and central dyslexia, which is a deeper issue were not told how to migrate correctly. Neuronal with processing text. Within the category of migration is dictated by some sections of DNA. peripheral dyslexia, there are three types: pure L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 24 alexia (alexia without ), neglect exactly are disrupted in , but the dyslexia, and attention dyslexia. All three types most likely answer seems to be that the process of peripheral dyslexia are caused by lesions, of converting from to is usually in the posterior region of the dominant disrupted, some semantic impairment is hemisphere (as a lesion in the occipital lobe involved, and issues also would disrupt the travel of some visual stimuli persist. Deep dyslexia is usually caused by to other areas of the brain). is lesions in the dominant perisylvian region characterized by reading very slowly, letter by (Coslett, 2000, pg. 238-9). letter (Dehaene, 2009). Neglect dyslexia is As we can see based on the symptoms, deep characterized by missing the beginning of a dyslexia and the peripheral dyslexias are not string of letters. This form of dyslexia is very similar to developmental dyslexia. sometimes affected by what the string is, so Phonological and , however, are someone with neglect dyslexia could not be able slightly more similar. is to read a non-word like “tiggle” but be able to characterized by not being able to read non- read a real word like “giggle” if she was words. Although people with phonological sensitive to the letter “g” (Coslett, 2000). dyslexia can read 85-95% of words correctly, Someone with attention dyslexia, the third type they sometimes perform as poorly at 10% of peripheral dyslexia, could read a word on its correctness on pseudo-words (Coslett, 2000, pg. own, but not when it is surrounded by words. 239). Usually this difficulty stems from Similarly, she could identify letters individually, confusing a non-word with a real word that but not in the context of a word (Coslett, 2000). looks similar to it or from converting graphemes Not much is known yet about the exact workings to phonemes incorrectly (e.g. pronouncing the of the brains of people with these acquired non-word “stime” as [stɪm] to rhyme with “him” dyslexias, but they are certainly related to visual rather than [staɪm] to rhyme with “lime”). difficulties, which developmental dyslexia Phonological dyslexia is also usually caused by usually is not. lesions in the dominant perisylvian region, but In the category of central dyslexias, we find most phonologic dyslexics also have lesions in three specific types: deep dyslexia, phonological the angular and supramarginal gyri as well as the dyslexia, and surface dyslexia. All three of superior (Coslett, 2000, pg. 239- these dyslexias are also acquired, but 40). phonological dyslexia and surface dyslexia are The last type of dyslexia, and the most quite similar to developmental dyslexia. Deep similar to the majority of cases of developmental dyslexia is characterized by semantic errors dyslexia, is surface dyslexia. It is characterized (giving “knight” as an answer when asked to by relative ease reading phonologically regular read “castle”), visual errors (reading words as words and non-words, but difficulty reading visually similar words, e.g. reading “scale” as irregular words. Some people with surface “skate”), morphological errors (reading “scolded” dyslexia are only able to grasp the meaning of a as “scolds” or “governor” as “government”), written word after they have found its reading words that describe tangible objects phonological form by saying it aloud or thinking (“hat,” “car”) more easily than words that it (Coslett, 2000, pg. 240-1). These issues with describe intangible ones (“wish,” “thought”), phonological forms seem to stem from difficulty reading nouns more easily than accessing the lexical route, which is one of the adverbs/adjectives, which in turn are read more two ways that readers process written language. easily than verbs (though this difference in To read a word, we either go through the lexical difficulty may be as a result of the route or the phonological route in the brain. The tangible/intangible issues), having a hard phonological route is the way that non-dyslexic reading function words (which again, could have elementary schoolers read: sounding the words to do with the tangibility issue), and having great out to get their meaning. The lexical route is difficulty reading pseudo-words. This is a very more like how non-dyslexic adults read: seeing a wide range of symptoms, so there are several word on the page leads directly to its meaning proposed explanations for what processes without the phonological middle man. Most L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 25 non-dyslexic adults do not read only with the 2001, pg. 2064). This disparity in number of lexical route, but some words do become more irregular combinations of letters helps to explain automatic and can take the lexical route, which why there are fewer cases of dyslexia in Italy some longer and less frequent words still need to than in the United Kingdom or the United States. be sounded out to be understood (Dehaene, Of course, having low rates of diagnosis of 2009). The issue of phonological route vs. dyslexia does not mean that there are no lexical route is an important one in the dyslexics in Italy. Dyslexia still exists in the discussion of dyslexia because so many same form in Italy; the brains of Italian dyslexics have difficulty accessing the lexical dyslexics (whether diagnosed or not diagnosed) route. have the same characteristics as the brains of In summary, dyslexia in English speakers is English dyslexics with excess gray matter and an issue of difficulty in converting graphemes to ectopias in the left middle temporal gyrus. phonemes. It is caused by excess unorganized However, dyslexia, as stated before, exists on a gray matter in the left middle temporal gyrus, spectrum. Paulesu, a knowledgeable scholar in which does not activate as much as it would in a the field of Italian vs. English dyslexia, suggests non-dyslexic while reading. The excess gray that mild dyslexia may be “aggravated” by matter is a result of poor neuronal migration, opaque orthographies like English or French which, in turn, is a result of poorly laid plans by (2001, pg. 2167) so that mild dyslexia may not some strands of DNA. There are six types of be obvious in some Italian readers while it acquired dyslexia, two of which (phonological would be in an English or French reader. This and surface dyslexia) are similar to difference in display but similarity in condition developmental dyslexia, which is the reading can be seen from testing dyslexic speakers of impairment that this paper discusses. Dyslexia different languages on seems to exist on some sort of spectrum, so there and on phonemic awareness. In one study, can be more severe and less severe cases (which Italian, English, and French dyslexics performed we judge in English by the amount of excess equally poorly on phonological tasks, but the gray matter surrounding the left middle temporal Italian dyslexics performed better on reading gyrus). comprehension tasks than did the speakers of languages with opaque writing systems, showing Differences in Dyslexia Across Languages that while the condition of dyslexia is the same As I mentioned earlier, English speakers in these three languages, it is more clearly have higher rates of dyslexia than do speakers of manifested in languages with opaque other languages. This fact seems odd at first, but orthographies (Johansson, 2006, pg. 33). In fact, there is a simple explanation. A language whose even in non-dyslexic, fully grown readers, there has graphemes mapping almost is a reading speed difference between languages one-to-one onto phonemes is called a transparent with transparent orthographies and languages writing system (e.g. Spanish, Italian), while a with opaque orthographies (Frost, Katz, and writing system where graphemes have many Bentin, 1987), so the issue may be less about phonetic interpretations or phonemes have many dyslexia and more about transparent writing graphemic interpretations is called an opaque systems being easier to process than opaque writing system (e.g. French, English). As stated ones. Regardless, there are less diagnosed cases before, dyslexia is primarily an issue of of dyslexia in countries where a language with a phonemic awareness and converting graphemes transparent writing system is spoken than to phonemes, so languages with transparent countries were a language with an opaque writing systems are the ones whose speakers writing system is spoken. have relatively low rates of dyslexia because it is Although writing about how languages with easier to convert graphemes to phonemes when transparent orthographies tend to have less there is an almost one-to-one correspondence. dyslexic readers than languages with opaque As an example, Italian has 33 ways to spell its writing systems do is very interesting, we do 25 sounds while English has approximately have to remember that cause and effect are not 1,120 ways to spell its 40 sounds (Helmuth, always so clear. In one study of predictors of L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 26 reading skill across several languages, an author while dyslexics react more strongly in the right cautioned his readers with one possible inferior occipital cortex (Siok, Zhendong, Jin, explanation of why skills may be higher Perfetti, and Tan, 2008, pg. 5564). It seems that in countries with languages that have transparent the right midinferior frontal areas of the brain writing systems: are involved in fluent reading of Chinese, while the right inferior occipital areas are involved in [One] explanation may be that an interaction the visual processing of the characters, between literacy levels and phonological skills suggesting that dyslexic Chinese readers have leads to variation in the ability of measures to issues processing the characters before even assess these skills across languages. Hence, a dealing with the phonological processing (if they highly transparent leads to high- need to use the phonological route at all). level literacy as well as good phonological skills in certain areas but not in others Dyslexia in Chinese may also be related to requiring more complex literacy and variable handwriting skill because to learn and memorize phonological measures to assess these varying characters, Chinese children copy the characters skill levels (Smythe, Everatt, Al-Menaye, out many over in school (Siok, Zhendong, Xianyou, Capellini, Gyarmathy, and Siegel, Jin, Perfetti, and Tan, 2008, pg. 5564). These 2008, pg. 184) huge differences in cause of reading impairment across writing systems raise a fascinating Though it is certainly possible that the only question: is dyslexia a different condition in reason why there are less cases of dyslexia in readers of Chinese versus readers of English? languages with transparent orthographies may be Not enough research has been done yet to give a that these languages are easier for dyslexics to confident answer to this interesting idea, but it is read, it may also be possible that having a highly important to keep this question in mind when transparent orthography may allow for more discussing cross-linguistic issues of dyslexia. opportunities for learning of literacy and phonological skills than a dyslexic reading a When Scripts Intersect language with a relatively opaque writing The differences between writing systems system would have. and how we read differently depending on what Most of this discussion of dyslexia so far has kind of we are reading is fascinating, but been focused on languages with alphabetic what happens when our brain deals with more writing systems, but there are many languages in than one orthography? Japanese is a language the world with logographic systems or systems that has three scripts: kanji, hiragana, and somewhere in between alphabetic and katakana. Kanji is a logographic script borrowed logographic. Mandarin Chinese is an interesting from Chinese. Hiragana and katakana can be example because it is a widely spoken language encompassed under one name: . Kana is a with a mostly logographic writing system. Since syllabic script that is completely regular and readers of Chinese do not perform a lot of transparent: one character is one syllable and the conversion from graphemes to phonemes character always means the same sound. No because their writing system is non-alphabetic, more than one character relates to one sound. dyslexia in Chinese is somewhat related to There is a perfect one-to-one correspondence of phonological problems, but is more an issue of grapheme to sound. Readers of Japanese low levels of activation in the left middle frontal probably process kanji in the same way that gyrus, where visuospacial and verbal working readers of Chinese process their writing, while memory is coordinated (Siok, Zhendong, Jin, Japanese readers likely process kana similarly to Perfetti, and Tan, 2008, pg. 5564). This area a highly transparent alphabetic script. Because may be recruited to deal with of these two scripts that are processed in very because they require memorization. Unlike different ways, Japanese has a very unique dyslexia in English, there is also component of writing system. impaired reading in the right hemisphere. Non- The Japanese kana system may give dyslexic readers of Chinese react strongly to dyslexics a chance to re-interpret phonemes and writing in the right midinferior frontal gyrus, give them a tool for understanding writing, thus L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 27 causing less dyslexia in Japan than in other selected that only used letters from the eleven countries (Johansson, 2006, pg. 35). Because overlapping characters. Some words would Japanese has two writing systems that do not convey real meaning if they were read as written generally cause people with phonemic in the Cyrillic but would be non-words awareness issues to be diagnosed with dyslexia in the Roman alphabet. Other words were real (since the kana system is transparent and the words in the Roman alphabet but non-words in kanji system is logographic, which does not the Cyrillic. The “bigraphic” readers took twice require phonological skill), the numbers of as long to read any of these overlapping words diagnosed dyslexics in Japan are lower than in as they took to read words that contained clear English-speaking countries (Wydell and Kondo, indicators of Cyrillic (e.g. Ш, Д) or Roman (e.g. 2003, pg. 38). Wydell and Kondo found a S, D). This study suggests that the phonological college who is natively bilingual in route is very important in Serbo-Croatian as a Japanese and English and has severe reading shallow language because the participants did problems in English, but no issues in Japanese not recognize the words via the lexical route, (2003). This lack of reading problems in which would have saved them time (Feldman Japanese is likely caused by their subject (1) not and Turvey, 1983). having the memory issues or handwriting issues that would cause problems for a reader of Second Language Learning Chinese or other logographic writing systems Although the popular conception is that to and (2) the extreme regularity and transparency learn multiple languages, you must be somehow of the kana system. intelligent, intelligence is not necessarily related It is fairly uncommon for scripts to intersect to skill for language learning, which means that except when looking at bilingualism, so I will there may be some other inherent skill for only discuss one other example of a language language learning. It seems that the number one that can be written with more than one script that predictor of overall skill in a second language illustrates a very different point from the (L2) is read and written native language (L1) example of Japanese. Currently, Serbian is proficiency, but speed of native language written with Cyrillic characters and Croatian is learning is also a significant predictor of L2 skill written with Roman characters, but in the 1980’s (Sparks, Patton, Ganschow, Humbach, and when Feldman and Turvey performed a study on Javorsky, 2006). This piece of information this issue, Serbian and Croatian were one obviously has important implications for language, Serbo-Croatian, that could be written dyslexics who want to learn a second language, either with the Cyrillic alphabet or with the since their reading and writing skills are less Roman alphabet. Because of this variance in developed than those of non-dyslexics. However, ways to write the language, children learned there are ways to combat this language-learning how to write their language with both disadvantage, since knowledge of in in school, so they were all essentially “bigraphic.” the native language and familiarity with the L2 Serbo-Croatian is highly transparent, so it is writing system also play a role in predicting very easy to agree on how non-words should be second language proficiency (Kahn-Horwitz, read and non-words should be read fairly Shimron, and Sparks, 2006, pg. 177-8). quickly. In the way of writing at the time, there Dyslexics could focus on learning a lot of were some characters that were the same in the vocabulary in their first language before two writing systems and signified the same attempting to learn a second language and try to sound: A, E, O, J, K, M, and T. There were also choose a language with familiar writing system. some characters that looked the same in the two Of course, most children who learn a second systems, but meant a different sound: H, P, C, language transfer their reading difficulties and and B. This means that there were eleven letters phonological processing issues over from L1 in total with overlap between the Cyrillic (Chung and Ho, 2010, pg. 195). In fact, Chinese alphabet and the Roman alphabet. The scholars dyslexics seem to be at high risk for a reading performing the study had “bigraphic” readers of deficit in L2 despite the fact that the writing Serbo-Croatian read several words that they had systems are so different. It also seems that the L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 28 level of difficulty involved in reading in L1 In terms of the question of whether dyslexia seems to be reflected in L2 (Chung and Ho, is transferred across languages, we have already 2010, pg. 206). So regardless of coping strategy, seen that dyslexia is transferred across languages these issues do present significant difficulties to with the information on the Chinese-English dyslexics who seek to learn a second or third bilingual dyslexics who tended to have similar language. reading difficulties in L1 and L2 (Chung and Ho, 2010, pg. 195). Another study with dyslexic and Bilingualism hyperlexic Kannada-English bilinguals showed Bilingualism and dyslexia is the that these bilinguals showed similar reading combination of everything that has been impairments in both languages that they spoke discussed in this paper: dyslexia, differences in (Joshi, Padakannaya, and Nishanimath, 2010). dyslexia between languages, intersections of However, Wydell and Kondo’s subject who was writing systems, and learning a second language. a Japanese-English bilingual was dyslexic in Combining the knowledge that we now have English but not in Japanese (2003). I suspect, about all of those topics will allow us to however, that this lack of obvious dyslexia in understand the unique issues surrounding Japanese was not actually a mystical absence of bilingual (and multilingual) dyslexics. dyslexia in Japanese, but rather, a lack of Bilingualism in itself is an interesting area obvious dyslexia in Japanese. Much like Italian of study with as many popular misconceptions dyslexics who do not manifest easily seen attached to it as there are misconception about difficulties in reading because of the high level dyslexia. The main false belief about of transparency of their writing system, Wydell bilingualism is that raising a child to be bilingual and Kondo’s subject likely did have some level will hurt the child’s development because of dyslexia in Japanese but it did not show learning more than one language at once will be because of the extreme transparency of the too overwhelming. This is a concern that is often syllabic kana system and the lack of reliance on raised when discussing bilingual dyslexics. phonological representations inherent in the Some might say that if children cannot learn to logographic kanji system. read in one language, how can they learn to read As stated before, many people would expect in two or more languages? Cline (2000) provides dyslexic bilinguals to perform worse on a response: language tests than dyslexic monolinguals because the bilinguals could be confused by We might hypothesize that the additional speaking two languages. However, there is challenges will overload children with evidence that in at least one study, dyslexic dyslexia and increase the likelihood of failure. bilinguals performed better on English tests than But an alternative hypothesis is possible— that their dyslexic monolingual counterparts. A such children will benefit from varied reading group of -English dyslexic bilinguals experiences and will be more likely to engage successfully with print, generalizing from one were compared to a group of dyslexic English form to another (pg. 8-9). monolinguals. The bilinguals learned to read English in school (as did the monolinguals) and Dyslexics could be overwhelmed by multiple Arabic at a three hours/week Arabic Heritage languages and “self-destruct” when it comes to Language school. The researchers tested a group reading or they could learn from multiple of non-dyslexic Arabic-English bilinguals language experiences and use their knowledge to against a group of non-dyslexic English cope with their disability. So, to find the answer monolinguals using word and pseudo-word to this issue, the questions that we should be reading tests and general language proficiency. considering about bilingualism and dyslexia These two groups performed at a similar level. seem to be: (1) Do dyslexic bilinguals transfer However, when comparing the dyslexics, the their dyslexia across languages? and (2) Do Arabic-English bilingual dyslexics performed dyslexic bilinguals perform worse, better, or the better than the English monolingual dyslexics on same on reading tasks as dyslexic monolinguals? the same tests (although both groups performed worse than the non-dyslexics). The researchers L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 29 suggest that the highly regular orthography of and readers can, in fact, be more proficient in Arabic may have helped the bilinguals to English than in Hebrew (L1). However, in develop better literacy skills (Abu-Rabia and impaired readers, the demands for phonemic Siegel, 2002). So in some cases, bilingual awareness in English and decreased automaticity dyslexics do perform better than monolinguals. that comes with a second language cause more Unfortunately, this area of study is still small, so reading problems than Hebrew does. They bring I was unable to find any other studies this conclusion into the practical sphere by specifically comparing reading skills of dyslexic saying that we cannot ignore the unique bilinguals and monolinguals. constraints and characteristics of each human Another interesting case of bilingualism is language since reading difficulties vary widely the case of Hebrew and English. In a study of by orthography, as we have seen over and over non-dyslexic Hebrew-English and English- again in this paper (2005). Hebrew bilinguals, both the bilinguals whose first language was English and the bilinguals Conclusion whose first language was Hebrew read English Orthography is key in understanding faster than Hebrew, even though bilinguals dyslexia. Since dyslexia is a learning disability usually suffer some sort of speed and accuracy that can vary widely from language to language, deficit in their second language (Shimron and orthography and the specific writing-related Sivan, 1994). Shimron and Sivan theorize that features of the languages must be kept in mind reading Hebrew takes more time because of its during study, diagnosis, and treatment of ambiguity when unvoweled (Hebrew, like the dyslexia. Second language learning and other Semitic languages, is traditionally written bilingualism in dyslexia are of special interest to without and the vowels must be inferred), of dyslexic bilinguals and its complex affixes that require extra mental seeking to learn a second, third, or fourth “unpacking,” and its right-to-left orientation language, but are also enlightening topics for all (words seen in the right visual field are of those people who study dyslexia because of processed more quickly because they go straight the cross-linguistic issues that they bring up. to the left hemisphere of the brain where From the few cases of dyslexia in Italy to the language is centered) (1994). Regardless of why different challenges required in reading Chinese this difference in reading speed occurs, it runs and the neurological effects of intersecting counter to the typical situation where L2 is scripts, we have seen in this paper that dyslexia slower to read than L1, so Hebrew gives us an exists not only on a spectrum of mild to severe, interesting forum in which to compare bilingual but on a plane of many different symptoms. dyslexics and bilingual non-dyslexics. Dyslexia is a truly variable disability, and this In one study by Oren and Breznitz, Hebrew(L1)- fact must be kept in mind when studying it. English(L2) dyslexic bilinguals were compared to Hebrew-English non-dyslexic bilinguals. The References dyslexics performed poorly on speed, Abu-Rabia, S. & Siegel, L. S. (2002). Reading, phonological processing, and orthographic syntactic, orthographic, and ability both in Hebrew and in English. While skills of bilingual Arabic-English-speaking dyslexics were slower in reading Hebrew than Canadian Children. Journal of the non-dyslexics, their accuracy was the same Psycholinguistic Research, 31, 661–678. as non-dyslexics. In English, both reading rates and accuracy were lower for dyslexics than non- Chung, K. K. H. & Ho, C.S. (2010). Second dyslexics. The dyslexics’ reading rates in Language Learning Difficulties in Chinese English were also slower than their reading rates Children With Dyslexia: What Are the in Hebrew, a contrast from the non-dyslexics Reading-Related Cognitive Skills That who read faster in English (2005). In an analysis Contribute to English and Chinese Word of their data, Oren and Breznitz explained that in Reading? Journal of Learning Disabilities, skilled readers, reading proficiency in English 43(3), 195-211. does not have to follow the typical L2 profile L. Dulude / IUJCS 7 (2012) 30

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