A Simple Technique for Determining Whether Children Know the Meaning of Spelling Words

Abstract

In the grade placement of spelling words their spelling difficulty has usually been made the principal criterion. As a secondary criterion, frequency of use as shown by such studies of adult usage as the Thorn dike1 and the Horn2 Word Lists has been considered. Some use has also been made occasionally of the so far inadequate investigation of children's written and spoken vocabularies. We have not known, how ever, which spelling words in the list of any grade were really within the vocabulary of the children who were expected to learn to spell them. Since the words included in any scientifically constructed speller, such as the Horn-Ashbaughs or Individual Speller*, have been chosen on the basis of careful studies of probable ultimate utility to the children who are to learn them, it certainly is desirable that the children should know the meaning of these words. It is palpably absurd to train chil dren to spell a word correctly when they do not know its meaning. On the other hand, it is a distinct waste of time to give children vocabulary drills and training on words which are already perfectly familiar to them. It is, therefore, highly desirable to discover which of the words included in any spelling list are within the vocabulary of the children who are to study this list and which words are unknown to a number of the children and consequently require special vacabulary drill. It is the purpose of this article to describe a technique which has proved to be both reliable and valid for determining which words in any given spelling list are familiar or unfamiliar to children in the grade for which the list is intended. The simplest possible method of determining which words are within