Abstract
The paper reports the results of two studies on the spelling performance of 1st graders in a transparent writing system. The spelling performance of Italian children was assessed to determine the cross-task relationship between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling at the single word level (Study 1) and at the text level (Study 2), respectively. In study 1, 132 Italian children’s spelling performance was assessed in 1st grade through two standardized tasks, i.e., word dictation, and spontaneous word spelling. In study 2, spelling performance of 81 Italian children was assessed in 1st grade through two tasks, i.e., text dictation, and spontaneous text spelling. In Study 1, spelling words and pseudo-words to dictation was found to be more difficult than spontaneous spelling of words. This effect was verified for all children (including low achievers and spelling impaired). The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school. In Study 2, children's spelling performances were not dependent across the two tasks (i.e., spelling a text under dictation or spontaneously). The two tasks shared the level of difficulty but performance in one task was not predictive of performance in the second task. Strong individual differences between children were found at the text level as a function of task. Similar to Study 1, the moderate correlation between spelling text to dictation and spontaneous spelling confirmed the usefulness of adopting both spelling assessments at school.
Highlights
Spelling plays a fundamental role in the writing process, especially in early stages of formal literacy acquisition [1]
The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school
The fact that spontaneous spelling and dictation only moderately correlated confirms Berninger and Whitaker's suggestion [52] to include both spelling assessments in school, as they are probably supported by different subprocesses; pseudo-word dictation task activates the sub-lexical route
Summary
Spelling plays a fundamental role in the writing process, especially in early stages of formal literacy acquisition [1]. Because many young students experience difficulties in the spelling phase, which in turn limits the overall writing process [3,4], it is crucial to assess spelling performance as early as possible, in order to detect difficulties that might impair children's writing skills. Analyzing whether spelling performance varies by task (e.g., dictation or spontaneous spelling) and level of language (e.g., word and text) could inform us on the nature of spelling in its early stage of acquisition [2,5], and help interpret spelling. Scholars have either analyzed spelling at the word level, or when focusing on the text level, they have privileged research on the content, partially neglecting the analysis of spelling
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