An investigation of Grade 5 children's knowledge of the doubling rule in spelling

Abstract

The goal of this study was to investigate Grade 5 children's knowledge of a common word pattern in English, to double the final consonant of a one‐syllable word when adding –ed. Significant correlations were found between –ed spelling and general spelling ability, as well as correct pronunciation of –ed words in isolated word reading and spelling. The correlation between –ed spelling and –ed word reading (r=0.31) is lower than one would expect to find in general spelling and reading ability. Individual interviews were conducted to assess children's explicit awareness of the doubling rule, followed by a measure of consistency in spelling a selected number of –ed words. Performance on an artificial grammar task indicated a correlation between implicit learning of nonsense letter strings and spelling ability. Overall results point to the unstable nature of children's knowledge of the doubling rule. Implications for instruction are discussed.