Since dyslexia tutors work continually with the English language, they are often involved in discussions about the language itself. English is known as a rather difficult language to learn for those who are not native speakers of it. Part of this is due to the many irregularities of the language. A dyslexia tutor is usually very familiar with these, because their work in dyslexia tutoring has made them very familiar with the intricacies of the language. Often, I hear people remark that English by nature is just an irregular language. However, this is not entirely true; while there are a fair number of irregularities, there are also many rules that can be learned and applied to the entire language. In dyslexia tutoring, we train our students in these rules, because they are so important to understanding the language.
The rules in English do have certain exceptions, certainly, but quite often, even these exceptions have rules that govern them and make them similar to each other. Therefore, learning exceptions and the rules that govern them can be a very beneficial exercise.
For dyslexia tutors, it is important to instill confidence in our dyslexic students and convince them that it is possible to understand the English language and improve in it. By introducing them to the structures that govern the language, a dyslexia tutor can help a student to gain this confidence.
Peter
