Learning Spanish when you have Dyslexia can be Hard: 8 Reasons Why and Strategies for Success

Learning Spanish with Dyslexia can be Hard

Students with dyslexia can experience difficulties with recognizing written words. This can impact a student’s reading and writing, which are essential academic skills. For these students, learning Spanish may be extra challenging. Below are 8 specific reasons why Spanish can be hard for people with dyslexia followed by several strategies to support learners.

Challenges and Support Strategies

1. New Grammar Rules: Verb Conjugation

If you’re a student with dyslexia, verb conjugation can be especially difficult. Just as students with dyslexia may have needed specific instruction in learning grammar while writing, they will also need specialized assistance while learning Spanish verb conjugation. 

What can help:

• Present verb endings and roots just as a color to help students master the concept without symbols
• Learn the specific rules for Spanish conjugation patterns
• Compare and contrast the English and Spanish rules for verb conjugation

2. Academic, Text-Based Instruction

The academic system in the US focuses on text-based instruction in Spanish. This means that written Spanish words are used as the basis for generalizing knowledge about language rules. This approach doesn’t always work for students with dyslexia, as their verbal language skills can be stronger than their written ones. 

What can help:

• Start instruction in speaking and listening first
• Explain patterns and rules while comparing English and Spanish text
• Use accommodations such as pass/fail grading or no penalty for spelling mistakes

3. New Vowel Sound Associations with English Alphabet Letters

The Spanish alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet, but three of the five vowels use a different sound for the same symbol. This can be incredibly tricky for a student to figure out independently.

What can help:

• Comparing and contrasting English and Spanish vowels
• Specific instruction in vowel blend rules
• Syllable practice

4. Accent Marks

Spanish uses a written accent mark when the word doesn’t follow the rules of natural stress. Many teachers tell students to memorize the words with accents, but that doesn’t always help students with dyslexia because storing language information visually is difficult.

What can help:

• Exploring word stress in English first
• Learning the rules of natural word stress in Spanish
• Practicing hearing and saying words with and without accents out loud

5. Not Every Teacher has a Spanish and English as a Foreign Language Background

Spanish teachers are required to know and teach Spanish grammar rules. However, not every Spanish teacher also knows the corresponding English grammar rules in the same way, which most people learn only through teaching or learning English as a Foreign Language as an adolescent or adult. This can make highlighting the similarities and differences between language rules difficult.

What can help:

• Find a tutor with a background in both English as a Second Language and Spanish as a Second Language 
• Learn the English language rules that correspond to the Spanish language rules you learn in class
• Ask ChatGPT or Google Translate to translate content and compare input and output

6. Different Spanish Accents based on Consonant Sounds

In English, accents are based on changes in vowel sounds. In Spanish, the accents occur through the consonants and the vowels stay unchanged, so missaying a vowel sound can quickly lead to confusion. English speakers will apply what they know about English vowel sounds to Spanish, which may be a challenge for being understood.

What can help:

• Listening to Spanish speakers in videos played at .75 Speed
• Recording words and comparing them to native speakers
• Having a tutor correct your pronunciation

7. Two Spanish Words for One English Concept: Ser and Estar 

In English, we have one verb that means “to be.” In Spanish, there are two different concepts and two corresponding words for “to be” or “ser and estar.” This can be really confusing for students if the teacher just identifies “ser” and “estar” as both meaning “to be.”

What can help:

• Learning the concepts of permanent (ser) and state (estar)
• Practicing sorting English sentences into the categories of permanent and state
• Connecting the new vocab words (ser/estar) after the concept has been established and practiced in English

8. Two Spanish Past Tenses for One English Concept: Preterite and Imperfect

In another case of two concepts that exist in Spanish to represent one concept in English, there are two main past tenses in Spanish and only one in English. Students usually learn the verb conjugation, translating both back to the one primary English past tense. This can cause confusion and interferes with accurately attaching language information to meaning for students with dyslexia.

What can help:

• Teaching the concept with film in English, dissecting what is the action of the shot and what is background detail
• Sorting English sentences into preterite and imperfect categories before learning the conjugation
• Learning the concepts of preterite (one single or repeated completed action with specific time) and imperfect (continuous and description)

Learning Spanish with Dyslexia is Hard, but You Should Learn it Anyway

While learning Spanish with dyslexia is challenging, it is still worthwhile: 

• Many colleges have high school foreign language coursework requirements
• There are many cognitive benefits to being bilingual
• There are 22 countries (if you classify Puerto Rico as a country) that speak Spanish
• Travel is much more comfortable when you speak the language
• Spanish is already an in-demand skill and changing demographics will lead to it becoming even more sought after
• Communication doesn’t require perfection. You can be understood and connect with new people despite making many mistakes

What Neurodivergent Spanish Tutoring Looks Like

Students can get specialized support from a fluent tutor who is also experienced in working with students with dyslexia and has taught both English as a Second Language and Spanish as a Second Language. The classes are personalized and can be done in conjunction with any other academic tutoring or Executive Function work. If you are interested in our Neurodivergent Spanish Tutoring classes, reach out to Hannah or Hailey!