Due to the difficulties SpLD learners experience (limited vocabulary, insufficient knowledge of morphology and syntax, mixing up similar words, problems with visually challenging materials ) reading can be very demanding for them. Therefore certain texts may be too difficult for them to cope with and should be adapted in order to meet students’ needs.
The first text is inappropriate for learners’ level of proficiency as it contains a high number of unfamiliar words and difficult grammatical structures. It is not motivating to read and it does not awaken learners’ curiosity in the information as it is visually challenging and it is not broken into smaller sections. The learners would probably feel discouraged from reading and trying to comprehend it even though the content of the text is interesting.
On the contrary the second text is suitable for the learners. Vocabulary, grammar, syntactic constructions have been reformulated and are in line with the learners' level of proficiency. The text is organized into short paragraphs and is accompanied with illustrative pictures that not only aid understanding but also engage dyslexic students who might otherwise struggle to pay attention. Therefore learners would probably feel inclined to read and understand the second text.
As for some extra accommodations, before reading the text Teacher should try to build background knowledge and do some pre-reading activities in order to activate learners’ expectations and help them identify what the text is about. As skimming would be challenging for a dyslexic student, it would be preferable to have students look at the illustrations and predict the content of the text. Making predictions gives students a purpose for reading. In addition, trying to discuss the topic and relate it to students’ lives would be motivating. Furthermore it would be helpful to review some words that we often take for granted but might be unfamiliar to dyslexic students. Providing them with a glossary of potentially unknown words would be useful. Finally audio recording could be helpful for learners with SpLD. I tried to convert the text with Robobraille at various speeds but the outcome was unsatisfactory. An alternative way to convert text to speech would be to use oddcast. I think it is more effective and it could be of help.