Cognitive predictors of shallow-orthography spelling speed and accuracy in 6th grade children

Vibeke Rønneberg,Mark Torrance

doi:10.1007/s11145-017-9751-3

Vibeke Rønneberg, Mark Torrance

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9751-3

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Abstract

Spelling accuracy and time course was investigated in a sample of 100 Norwegian 6th grade students completing a standardized spelling-to-dictation task. Students responded by keyboard with accurate recordings of response-onset latency (RT) and inter-keypress interval (IKI). We determined effects of a number of child-level cognitive ability factors, and of word-level factors—particularly the location within the word of a spelling challenge (e.g., letter doubling), if present. Spelling accuracy was predicted by word reading (word split) performance, non-word spelling accuracy, keyboard key-finding speed and short-term memory span. Word reading performance predicted accuracy just for words with spelling challenges. For correctly spelled words, RT was predicted by non-word spelling response time and by speed on a key-finding task, and mean IKI by non-verbal cognitive ability, word reading, non-word spelling response time, and key-finding speed. Compared to words with no challenge, mean IKI was shorter for words with an initial challenge and longer for words with a mid-word challenge. These findings suggest that spelling is not fully planned when typing commences, a hypothesis that is confirmed by the fact that IKI immediately before within word challenges were reliably longer than elsewhere within the same word. Taken together our findings imply that routine classroom spelling tests better capture student competence if they focus not only on accuracy but also on production time course.

Highlights

Both practitioners and researchers typically understand spelling competence as ability to spell words accurately
We explore the process of spelling production, testing models similar to those described in the previous section but with response-onset latency (RT) and mean inter-keypress intervals (MIKI) as dependent variables
We hypothesized that the effect of a mid-word challenge on MIKI resulted from students pausing for longer when they reached the spelling challenge. To test this we looked at individual inter-keypress intervals (IKIs) just for items with mid-word challenges, comparing IKIs immediately prior to a challenge with IKIs at other locations

Summary

Introduction

Both practitioners and researchers typically understand spelling competence as ability to spell words accurately. Understanding the full complexity of a student’s spelling ability arguably requires information about both the product and production time course There are both educational and theoretical reasons for developing an understanding of factors that predict spelling fluency. If spelling is attention demanding, and draws processing resources away from higher-level processes, the writer may, in a literal sense, forget what they were going to say This trade-off between transcription (spelling and handwriting) and higher-level conceptual or rhetorical processing has frequently been argued (e.g., Berninger, 1999; McCutchen, 1996; Torrance & Galbraith, 2006; von Koss Torkildsen, Morken, Helland, & Helland, 2016), evidence of a causal relationship between spelling competence and text quality (spelling accuracy aside) is not yet established (see, for example, Babayigit & Stainthorp, 2010; Graham & Santangelo, 2014)

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