Conventional Spelling Research Articles

Linguistic Pattern Analysis of Misspellings of Typically Developing Writers in Grades 1–9

A mixed-methods approach, evaluating triple word-form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in Grades 1-9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected. Grade-level effects were analyzed with trend analysis. Qualitative analyses determined frequent error types and how use of specific linguistic features varied across grades. Phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors were noted across all grades, but orthographic errors predominated. Linear trends revealed developmental shifts in error proportions for the orthographic and morphological categories between Grades 4 and 5. Similar error types were noted across age groups, but the nature of linguistic feature error changed with age. Triple word-form theory was supported. By Grade 1, orthographic errors predominated, and phonological and morphological error patterns were evident. Morphological errors increased in relative frequency in older students, probably due to a combination of word-formation issues and vocabulary growth. These patterns suggest that normal spelling development reflects nonlinear growth and that it takes a long time to develop a robust orthographic lexicon that coordinates phonology, orthography, and morphology and supports word-specific, conventional spelling.

Morphological Processing Strategies: An Intervention for Spelling Difficulties in English Language

The paper presents a descriptive account of a Morphological Processing Spelling Approach (MPSA), which substitutes a more conventional spelling instruction, proposed for developing primary school students’ metamorphological knowledge and strategies in English as a foreign language. For the application of the MPSA, seven dictation texts were carefully designed by the researchers, each one including a specific morphemic pattern recycled in ten different words. They were implemented in the 6th grade of an English primary school classroom during seven 45 minute sessions, carried out after the completion of every unit of the conventional English textbook. In this way, each dictation served as a recycling way of teaching inflexional and derivational morphemic patterns. In a guided participatory context, problem-solving spelling activities were performed in five basic steps, involving spellers, especially the struggling ones, into employing morphological processing strategies during sub- processes. It could serve as a supplementary strategy to learning to spell, a critical element of a comprehensive approach to spelling instruction, since MPSA is a flexible approach and can also incorporate the use of phonetic or visually-memory based spelling strategies.

Pour une analyse morphologique des productions écrites d’élèves FLS

In this article we study a corpus of written work by allophonic secondary school pupils (aged 11-15), the majority of which are Turkish native speakers whose language at school is French. Although their written work in French does not conform with conventional spelling due to the fact that it is based on sound, the linguistic description of the corpus also shows that it does not comply either with phonetic spelling. Their written work both testifies to a number of skills acquired through learning and provides an explanation as to the origin of their spelling mistakes. It is our contention that the strategies of French language spelling are for the most part based on the paradigmatic dimension of the language, independently of its segmental dimension structuring its verbal or nominal units.

Influence of L1 Orthography on Spelling English Words by Bilingual Children: A Natural Experiment Comparing Syllabic, Phonological, and Morphosyllabic First Languages

This study examined the influence of first language (L1) orthography on bilingual children's spelling performance in their second language (L2), English. The subtests of spelling and letter-word identification from the Woodcock Proficiency Battery were administered to a sample of 285 six-year-olds in Singapore. All children received literacy instruction in English through the “look-say” method. Analyses of covariance showed a statistically significant effect of L1 on conventional spelling but not on phonological spelling, controlling for reading proficiency. The Chinese (morphosyllabic) group not only scored higher than the Malay (alphabetic) and Tamil (syllabic) groups overall, but also made more real-word substitution and transposition errors. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of L1 orthographic depth on spelling, and how learning disability specialists can utilize the information while evaluating the spelling/literacy skills of English L2 learners.

Componential Skills in Early Spelling Development in Korean

The present study investigated multiple componential skills for conventional spelling using data from 5-year-old Korean children (N = 77). Error analysis showed that 5-year-old Korean children primarily employed a phonological transcription strategy in spelling despite the absence of systematic and explicit instruction on phonological strategies (i.e., phonological awareness and alphabetic knowledge). Results from regression analysis revealed that alphabetic knowledge, orthographic awareness, and morphological awareness were positively related to spelling after controlling for vocabulary and phonological awareness. These results converge with previous studies with English-speaking children showing the importance of multiple skills such as alphabetic skills (phoneme awareness and letter knowledge), orthographic awareness, and morphological awareness for early spelling development.

From scribbles to scrabble: preschool children’s developing knowledge of written language

The purpose of this study was to concurrently examine the development of written language across several writing tasks and to investigate how writing features develop in preschool children. Emergent written language knowledge of 372 preschoolers was assessed using numerous writing tasks. The findings from this study indicate that children possess a great deal of writing knowledge before beginning school. Children appear to progress along a continuum from scribbling to conventional spelling, and this progression is linear and task dependent. There was clear evidence to support the claim that universal writing features develop before language-specific features. Children as young as 3 years possess knowledge regarding universal and language-specific writing features. There is substantial developmental continuity in literacy skills from the preschool period into early elementary grades. Implications of these findings on writing development are discussed.

Gender differences in computerised and conventional educational tests

Abstract Research has demonstrated girls to outperform boys on conventional literacy tests. The present studies concern gender differences on computerised educational tests. Seventy‐one children were tested using LASS Secondary and a set of seven conventional measures. No significant gender differences were found on any of the LASS Secondary modules, although females did outperform males on a conventional spelling test. A further 126 pupils were tested on computerised and paper versions of the LASS Secondary reading, spelling and reasoning modules. No gender differences were found on the computerised versions, but there were significant differences on the paper versions of the reading and spelling modules favouring females. In a third study, 45 children were administered computerised and paper versions of the LASS Junior reading and spelling modules. There were no significant differences on the computerised modules, but girls performed significantly higher than boys on the paper version of the spelling module. It is possible that computerised assessment does not detect the established gender effect due to differences between males and females in motivation, computer experience and competitiveness. Further large‐scale studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

The influences of language of literacy instruction and vocabulary on the spelling of Spanish–English bilinguals

The relation of language of instruction and vocabulary to the English spelling of bilingual first graders receiving either English or Spanish literacy instruction and of monolinguals in English literacy instruction was explored. Only bilingual students in Spanish literacy instruction (SLI) exhibited Spanish-influenced spelling, indicating a powerful effect of language of literacy instruction. SLI without English literacy instruction (ELI) may be a prerequisite for the appearance of Spanish influences in English spelling. Spanish-influenced spelling appears to be a normal developmental phenomenon only for those bilingual first graders who have received no ELI. The students in ELI, on average, wrote more orthographically plausible English pseudowords than students in SLI, indicating that the students in SLI simply had not yet learned conventional spelling patterns in English. In addition, children with good Spanish vocabulary showed more Spanish-influenced spelling, while English vocabulary predicted more orthographically plausible English spellings. The relationship between English vocabulary and English spelling was similar for children instructed in Spanish and English. English vocabulary and literacy instruction both made unique, positive contributions to English pseudoword␣spelling, while Spanish literacy instruction played a more important role than Spanish vocabulary in the production of Spanish-influenced spelling in English.

Writing starts with own name writing: From scribbling to conventional spelling in Israeli and Dutch children

The development of children's writing of their own names as compared to their writing of dictated words was examined on samples of children ranging from 2 to 5 years of age, who were immersed in Hebrew or Dutch and recruited from low to high socioeconomic status families. Analyses were based on four data sets collected in three studies. From a young age, children wrote their name on a higher level than they wrote other words, and name writing improved with age more rapidly than word writing across the whole age range. Furthermore, the intercorrelations between word writings, corrected for age, were generally higher than the correlation between word and name writing, indicating that children exhibit a unique approach to the writing of their own name, irrespective of other background variables. Children's advanced skill in writing their name may suggest that name writing promotes the development of writing in general.

Correcting real-word spelling errors by restoring lexical cohesion

Spelling errors that happen to result in a real word in the lexicon cannot be detected by a conventional spelling checker. We present a method for detecting and correcting many such errors by identifying tokens that are semantically unrelated to their context and are spelling variations of words that would be related to the context. Relatedness to context is determined by a measure of semantic distance initially proposed by Jiang and Conrath (1997). We tested the method on an artificial corpus of errors; it achieved recall of 23–50% and precision of 18–25%.

Writing in AAC

Writing in AAC

Spelling accuracy for secondary students with spelling difficulties: Using phonetic codes and technology

This study investigated the combined use of the phonetic spelling code and an electronic spellchecker as a means by which secondary students with moderate spelling difficulties may write in a more decipherable manner, and spell more words accurately according to the conventional spelling code. Eighteen Year 7 secondary school students with moderate spelling difficulties were taught to use two simple phonetic spelling strategies in conjunction with an electronic phonetic dictionary, the Franklin TMQ 200, under three treatment conditions: whole class, small group and individual tuition. It was hypothesized that the individual treatment would be the most effective, followed by the small group, then whole class conditions. All but one student made gains in correct spelling on the South Australian Spelling Test (Range 1–9), although there were no differences between the instructional conditions and no significant gains in understandable (phonetically regular) attempts to spell, pre‐test to post‐test. It is a significant finding in its own right that many students had mastered and were applying the phonetic code, when the correct spelling of a word was not immediately accessible to them. The potential value of the program for students with severe remedial spelling needs, as well as those with moderate needs, is also discussed.

The Foundations of Spelling Ability: Evidence from a 3-Year Longitudinal Study

The development of spelling skills was investigated at four points over the first 3 years of schooling in 153 British children. In order to uncover the developmental relationship between spelling and reading ability and to identify the component skills of spelling, children were assessed with a large battery of tests, including reading, phoneme awareness, letter-sound and letter-name knowledge, memory, and verbal and nonverbal IQ. Spelling productions were assessed both for phonological plausibility and for conventional accuracy. A path analysis revealed that phoneme segmentation and letter-sound knowledge were the precursor skills of early phonological spelling ability; in turn phonological spelling combined with reading to promote conventional spelling skill. Although initial phonological spelling ability predicted later reading, early reading ability did not influence later phonological spelling ability. These results indicate that skilled spelling requires a foundation in phonological transcoding ability which in turn enables the formation of orthographic representations. Our data also suggest that the increasingly complex and specific orthographic patterns demonstrated in children's spelling are learned through experience and instruction in both reading and spelling.

More Smoking Guns: A Response to Linnea Ehri and Steven Stahl

Her critique the National Reading Panel report did not uncover minor oversights or occasional errors, Ms. Garan responds. Rather, it documented a consistent pattern sloppy research and, what's worse, blatant and continuing misrepresentation findings. IN MY MARCH article, Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors: A Critique the National Reading Panel Report on Phonics, I used the data and words the National Reading Panel (NRP) to establish that its report was fatally flawed in terms the most fundamental research protocols, including validity, reliability, and generalizability. I established that, rather than living up to the highly publicized claims scientific accuracy, the report was riddled with errors. Furthermore, I documented a disturbing pattern fundamental contradictions between the findings in the lengthy Reports the Subgroups and the panel's reporting its own findings in the separately packaged, widely distributed Summary and publicity video. NRP member Joanne Yatvin concurred with my analysis. In her letter published in the June 2001 Kappan, Yatvin acknowledges the weaknesses and inconsistencies the NRP phonics report and attributes them, in part, to the panel's eagerness to embrace phonics as a cure-all. She also agrees that the NRP report is fundamentally lacking in validity and notes that the panel used all kinds of isolated skills, including the decoding pseudo-words, and called them But the terms and growth, as used by the NRP, are actually misnomers, not by my definition, but according to what the panel itself declared should be the legitimate outcome practice in phonics skills: the authentic application to text. I also documented that, while isolated phonics instruction resulted in statistically significant outcomes with regard to children's performance on isolated skills - such as reading pseudowords or word identification - these skills did not transfer to real-life textual application - such as conventional spelling or the comprehension authentic text - at a statistically significant level. Again, I did so using the panel's own data. Yatvin confirms one the most important points I made in my original article - that the results included in the NRP report have very little to do with true reading. Furthermore, she concurs that the panel misrepresented the findings the report, as the conclusions in the brief, widely distributed Summary are in direct contradiction to both the panel's data and its own findings and discussion in the lengthy Reports the Subgroups. Unfortunately, it is the errors that made headlines and were translated into national policy, while the facts remained obscured in pages tables and data. In fact, it is the loudly trumpeted - but fundamentally inaccurate - research the NRP that constitutes the the Bush Administration's education plan. Within the Bush plan, the science the NRP represents both the carrot and the stick. That is, the plan proposes that funds be distributed or withheld based on the compliance schools with the the report the NRP. Because its enormous political and financial clout, it is important that the research the NRP is indeed above reproach. Schizophrenic Science and Fuzzy Math Unfortunately, not only are the results reported by the NRP inconsistent even within its own pages, but the panel itself is unable to come to a consensus about the accuracy its science. Panel member Linnea Ehri and NRP contributor Steven Stahl disagree with fellow panel member Joanne Yatvin. Their rebuttal to my article is troubling in that it not only perpetuates but also demonstrably extends the inaccuracies the original NRP report. In their rebuttal, Ehri and Stahl state, As we will document, her [Garan's] criticisms are highly selected, ill-founded, and overgeneralized. I ask Kappan readers to note the use the word document. …

Home literacy activities and their influence on early literacy skills.

The relationship between the home environments of 66 children and their language and literacy development was examined. After accounting for child age, parent education, and child ability as indexed by scores on a rapid automatized naming task and Block Design of the WPPSI-R, shared book reading at home made no contribution to the prediction of the literacy skills of letter name and letter sound knowledge in kindergarten. In contrast, home activities involving letters predicted modest and statistically significant amounts of variance. For the areas of receptive vocabulary and phonological sensitivity, neither shared book reading nor letter activities were predictive. Follow-up to mid-Grade 2 underscored the importance of letter name/sound knowledge and phonological sensitivity in kindergarten in accounting for individual differences in later achievement in reading comprehension, phonological spelling, and conventional spelling.

Spelling reform and its effects on the ability to apply etymological principles in word comprehension

The present paper examines the perceived difficulties that a spelling reform may create in tracing the etymology of Greek words. More specifically, an attempt was made to investigate whether alterations (simplifications) in the conventional spelling of difficult or low frequency words will affect the use of etymological principles in guessing at the appropriate meaning of words. Forty test items (words in Classical and Modern Greek) were manipulated in terms of spelling and presented in a multiple-choice format to 68 university students for identification. Statistical comparisons were undertaken to examine whether these alterations had any negative effects on word comprehension.

The Relation between Reading and Spelling in Skilled Adult Readers

University students made spelling recognition judgements on conventional spellings and misspellings of words. Regardless of how confident they were of their spelling, they could distinguish reliably between the conventional spelling and misspellings when they could spell the word, but they could not distinguish between the conventional spelling and their own misspelling when they could not spell the word. Students also read words that they could not spell as rapidly and as accurately as words that they could spell in a silent reading task. Finally, subjective confidence in spelling was associated with consistency of spelling across trials. Overall, there was no evidence for the claim of a separate reading representation containing orthographic information superior to that in a spelling representation. Instead, the results support the view that a common representation underlies both reading and spelling. Some representations may be incomplete, thus preventing precise spelling, but allowing identification by partial cues.

Awareness of Language in Children Who Have Reading Difficulties: Historical Comparisons in a Longitudinal Study

We look at the awareness of grammatical distinctions in children with reading difficulties, and at their ability to use this awareness in order to learn about the conventional spellings for morphemes like "ed" at the end of past verbs. Using longitudinal methods we show that, initially, children who are to become poor readers are actually better in this aspect of spelling and also in grammatical awareness tasks than younger children of the same reading level: but they are worse than these other children in tasks that tax their knowledge of phonologically based letter-sound correspondences. Later on, however, the poor readers lose their initial advantages in the conventional spelling of morphemes. We conclude that poor readers are initially held back by a failure to learn about letter-sound correspondences, and that this deprives them of successful reading experience, which in turn hampers the growth of their grammatical awareness and their learning how to spell morphemes.

What a Parent Brings to the Table: Young Children Writing with and without Parental Assistance

Twenty children aged 5 and 6 years were observed attempting to write a letter alone and with their mothers' assistance. Children produced more sophisticated products with adult mediation, using conventional spelling, writing longer messages, and using more mechanical details such as punctuation and salutations. Children's self-talk about the meaning of the message was associated with higher product quality in the solo task. Interactive talk about conventions (spelling, page placement, etc.) was associated with dyadic product quality. Children's rank order for message length and conventional details was maintained across tasks. Evidence of maternal fine-tuning of scaffolding behaviors in response to the child's independent level of print performance was revealed in a qualitative analysis of dyadic interaction. Most mothers appeared to have a sense of the developmental progression of writing skills.

The Concurrent Development of Spelling and Decoding in Two Different Orthographies

The hypothesis that differences between first language (L1) and second language (L2) reading and spelling profiles could be accounted for by lack of proficiency in the L2 or differences in orthographic complexity was explored in a longitudinal study of 45 children acquiring reading and spelling skills concurrently in English (L1) and Hebrew (L2). The children were tested in Grades 1 and 2 on literacy measures in both languages. Neither of these explanations alone sufficed to explain the development of reading and spelling in the two languages. The less complex Hebrew orthography facilitated subjects' decoding performance, but failed to maintain that facilitation in spelling. Depressed second language effects were apparent in spelling but not in decoding, which actually favoured the subjects' L2. Developmental findings showed that, despite L1-L2 differences in orthographic complexity and language proficiency, the profiles of emergent spelling in both languages are strikingly similar. The rate of acquisition of conventional spelling, however, differentiates L1 from L2 performance.