Spelling Errors: Causes, Influence on Students’ Performance in English Language Essay Writing and Strategies for Correcting Them

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Spelling as a language sub-skill is so important in learning any particular language. For students to excel in learning English Language and indeed all subjects (since English language is the language of instruction), they must understand and be competent in the rudiment of spelling. Unfortunately, Nigerian students of English Language seem to be deficient in the use of spelling as a sub-skill of English Language. Most of their write ups are full of spelling errors. It also seems much is not done by the stakeholders to address the problem. This study therefore assessed errors in students essay writing, causes of these errors, the influence of these errors on student’s performance in essay writing and suggested strategies that could be used to correct them. The descriptive research design of the survey type was employed for the study. The population consisted of all secondary schools in Akure South Local Government Area of Ondo State. The sample consisted of 175 students and teachers randomly selected from 5 secondary schools (30 students and 5 teachers per school) within the population area. Two instruments were used for data collection. Students’ essay writing which served as corpus on which analysis was made to identify the pattern of spelling errors and a self constructed and validated questionnaire administered on the teachers to elicit responses on the causes, influence of errors and strategies that can be used to correct them among the students. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages. Results showed that spelling errors found in students’ essays include, omission of letter(s), addition of letter(s), reduplication of letter(s) among others. Some of the causes of error include the fact that students don’t usually take the pain to go through their work after writing; there are few books that emphasise spelling errors in the school libraries. Appropriate recommendations are made based on the findings of the study.

2004 •

International Journal of Learning and …

Applied Error Analysis of Written Production of English Essays of Tenth Grade Students in Ajloun Schools, Jordan

2012 •

news.usindh.edu.pk

Factors Affecting the Language Learning Process among Saudi Students

Reading and Writing

Spelling performance of English consonants among students whose first language is Arabic

The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of some aspects of the Arabic phonological system on spelling English words. In Study 1, the spelling performance of Arabic students from grades four and six was compared with English students in cognate phoneme pairs which exist across both languages (/d/ and /t/), and pairs in which only one of the phonemes exists in Arabic (/b/ and /p/, /f/ and /v/) using a spelling test which contained words with the target phonemes. The findings showed that the Arabic participants performed similarly to the English participants on the phonemes /t/ and /d/, but they tended to spell the phonemes /b/, /p/, /f/, and /v/ using their cognate pairs more often than the English participants did. In Study 2, the spelling performance of Arabic students was compared across grades 4, 6, 8, and 10 for the same target phonemes. The analyses showed no difference between the Arabic participants in how often they confused the target phonemes with their cognate pairs across the different grade levels, except for the phonemes /p/ and /v/, for which the effect size was small. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of phonology in spelling, as well as the influence of the first language on spelling in a second language. They also indicate that Arabic students continue to be dependent on phonological processes when spelling English words even as they grow older.

Porta Linguarum http://www.ugr.es/~portalin/articulos/PL_numero15/3.%20MARIA%20BELEN%20DIEZ.pdf

Detecting learning disorders in students’ written production in the foreign language: are learner corpora of any help?

2011 •

Previous studies have shown that reading skills are easier to acquire in orthographies with highly regular grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPC) compared to the orthographies where a single grapheme maps into multiple phonemes. However, recent studies posit that spelling proficiency do not follow a similar developmental trend as reading development across writing systems with varying levels of orthographic opacity. Using a within-subjects design, this study was aimed at comparing spelling performance contrasting orthographies among Zambian school children. Equivalent sets of spelling assessments were administered to 108 Nyanja-English bilinguals in grades 5-7. The results revealed significantly better performance on the English version compared to the Nyanja version. Further error analysis revealed that the most errors in both writing systems were related to the spelling of irregular digraphs. However, spelling in Nyanja proved more challenging compared to English orthography and corroborate Alcock and Ngorosho’s (2003) finding that orthographic transparency does not favor spelling proficiency to the extent it favors reading.

This action research is designed to enhance the spelling skills of III-SPA A students of Pangasinan National High School,SY 2013-2014 through computer assisted instruction.It does not only focus on the enhancing effects of the said intervention material but also tries to dig causes behind the poor spelling skills of the students.Questionnaires based on the prescribed English textbook from DEPED was the main data gathering being used. The experimental design was utilized and data were interpreted and summarized by using frequency count and equivalent percentage. The researcher recommends a replica of the study as a means to help English teachers and students in spelling lessons.

International Journal of Linguistics

Spelling Errors Made by Arab Learners of English

2015 •

Writing is a pivotal system that transfers spoken utterances from being heard to being seen and read. Literacy is appraised not only by reading and writing accurately, but also spelling words correctly. Pedagogically speaking, second language learners (L2) may struggle in their English writing more than first language speakers (L1) due to different reasons. Even among L2 learners, it is believed that Arab learners struggle with English spelling more than any other non-native speakers. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to review recent research and literature on the spelling errors made by Arab learners. In addition, a small experimental study of intermediate high school Saudi students aged 17-18 years old (n = 26) is implemented in a context that has not been explored yet. All participating students were tested before taking part in the study. The results of this study are consistent with previous research, which found that spelling errors made by Arab learners are associated with the impact of their L1. The most common spelling errors are consonant doubling, silent letters, final [e] and vowels in general. It is, thus, indispensable for Arab instructors and stakeholders to scrutinize this dilemma explicitly. Keywords: Writing system, Spelling errors, First language, Second language, Arab learners

This paper examines the errors committed by second language learners in English essay writing based on eight selected grammatical items and makes recommendations to improve English writing skills in Malaysia. While errors were once regarded with contempt and looked upon as something to be avoided at all cost, they are now perceived to represent stages of language acquisition. The objectives of this paper are to identify and classify comprehensible and incomprehensible errors committed by the respondents, and attempt to explain the probable causes of such errors. Analyses of data revealed that most of the errors committed by the respondents were comprehensible ones. With reference to the selected grammatical items, the analysis established that respondents faced particular difficulty in the use of verbs, prepositions and spellings. The research further showed that the errors committed by the respondents were due to over-generalization and simplification. The paper thus recommends the incorporation of explicit grammar instructions in the teaching of English as a second language in order to improve grammatical competence in English writing.

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2013 •

International Journal of Education & Literacy Studies [IJELS], Dr. Bandar Al-Sobhi, RAMIZA DARMI, Sabariah Rashid

Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics

The Causes of English Spelling Errors by Arabic Learners of English

2017 •

TESOL Journal

Spelling It Out, One por Uno: Patterns of Emergent Bilinguals in a Dual Language Classroom

2017 •

Journal of Namibian Studies, 19 (2016): 91 – 108 ISSN: 1863-5954

Josephine Ola Busari: Lack of reading culture and literacy in the Namibian educational system

2016 •

Indian Journal of Public Health Research & Development

An Investigation of English Spelling Achievement among Second Level Saudi Students at King Khalid University

2018 •