Profiling English Abilities of Korean 5th Graders with and without Developmental Dyslexia

Objectives Most Korean students learn English as a second language from 3rd grade in public school curriculum. Despite receiving the same instruction in schools, there are concerns about the individual differences in English abilities among Korean students. Students with developmental dyslexia, who have difficulties in reading and writ-ing in their native language, also struggle with reading and writing in English. This study aimed to confirm the strengths and weaknesses of students through individual profiling of English abilties. Methods This study focused on two typical development students(TD who are A and B) and two developmental dyslexic students(DD who are C and D) in 5th grade. We developed the tests to profile English abilities, focusing on word reading, word writing, vocabulary, and meta-linguistic awareness abilities. Results In word reading and word writing, the TD showed higher performance than DD. In vocabulary, A, B, and C showed similar high performance, while D showed lower performance. In meta-linguistic awareness abilities, including phonological awareness(PA), syntactic awareness(SA), and orthographical awareness(OA), TD showed high performance in all abilities. Among the DD, C had weaknesses in SA compared to PA and OA, while D showed weaknesses in all abilities. Conclusions This study highlights the profiling of diverse English abilities among four 5th grade students. While DD showed different profiles in this study, they commonly demonstrated lower performance in reading and writing compared to TD, as well as lower metalinguistic awareness. It suggests that DD may require individualized educa-tion plan(IEP) based on their strengths and weaknesses.