The article centres around the questions of how the written form of words in a foreign language is normally acquired, and how the learning process of dyslexic pupils can be described.A phase model is presented of the way reading and writing are learnt in the mother tongue, incorporating several strategies: the logographemic, alphabetical, orthographic and direct strategies.The research reported on leads to the following conclusions:1. the strategies outlined in the mother tongue model can also be recognized in the foreign language;2. the model offers the possibility of describing the learning process in the foreign language in phases, too;3. the errors made by weak spellers differ quantitatively, not qualitatively, from those made by normal spellers.