To the Editor:
Thank you for Sarah Gerry's well-done article on foreign language learning and learning disabilities ("Rassias method isn't a snap for everyone at Dartmouth," The Dartmouth, Feb. 16).
One comment: there is a difference between hearing acuity and auditory processing. Students whose learning disabilities involve auditory processing deficits don't normally have poor hearing. It's the brain's processing of spoken language that delays the grasp of the sounds. Such students are invariably "running to catch up" with what they hear in a new language. When they don't know the language, there is no context to ease that grasp (as there is in their native language).
Sitting in the front row may allow a student to see the speaker's lips better, but lipreading alone does not significantly improve auditory processing for students with certain learning disabilities.
