The Learning Materials Design for Teaching EFL Students with Mental Retardation or Reading Disability to Spell:Analogy Phonics v.s. Analytic Phonics
Abstract: Junior high students with mental retardation (MR) or reading disability (RD) experience more difficulties in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning than their normal peers. Due to naming-speed deficits and phonological processing deficits, RD students need much more scaffolding and practice when learning phonics and spelling. According to the researchers’ classroom observation, mildly mentally retarded students generally perform better than reading disabled students in phonological awareness and spelling. The research was aimed to find out in an individual educational program which instructional approach, analogy phonics or analytic phonics, works better on MR students, and the interrelations between the two approaches and RD students with naming deficits, phonological deficits or double deficits, and thus to figure out the principles of designing learning materials to teach impaired EFL students spelling.