Hidden Problems in ESL Learners

Abstract

This article reports a case of a native speaker of Spanish who has severe reading and spelling difficulties in English. These difficulties resemble those found in surface dyslexia. It is argued that he also has the same difficulties in Spanish, but the regular spelling system of Spanish prevented his difficulties from becoming apparent. We consider the possibility that the writing system of a speaker's L1can strongly influence the way he/she habitually handles words both in the Ll and in an L2, and the implications of this view for teaching English as a second language are discussed.