This study explores invented spelling in Arabic. Since spelling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is taught through dictation and composition, this study explores and compares spelling inventions that occur in students' writing in each context. Samples of dictation and composition were collected from three sixth grade classrooms taught by UAE teachers. In addition, this study aimed to investigate what sixth grade students in the (UAE) know about Arabic spelling. A number of features were examined to explore the participants' knowledge and use of certain Arabic spelling rules. Spelling inventions were categorized into three linguistic levels for analysis: 1) phonological level, 2) grammatical level, and 3) orthographic level to answer three of the research question. The findings of student's spelling inventions in their compositions were compared to those found in dictation. Interviews were also conducted to supplement written samples, and to study what sixth grade students report that they do when Arabic standard spelling in unknown. In practice, this study will serve Arabic teachers in the Arabic world as a resource in teaching, evaluating, and understanding invented spelling. Students' invented spellings must be seen as opportunities to contribute actively to their own learning. By combining an understanding of invented spelling with formal spelling instruction, teachers will develop more effective spelling instructions. Findings included: sixth grade students' spelling inventions that occurred in dictations reflected the phonological level primarily; writing compositions drew students' attention to meaning making rather than writing every word accurately; students wrote spontaneously and used their knowledge of information, poems, Koran and Hadith in their compositions. When standard spelling in unknown, students reported that they have many strategies to overcome spelling difficulties such as sounding out, asking for help, visualization, etc. However, they do not advise other students who have spelling difficulties to use the same techniques they use in the same order.

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Current literature on spelling strategies has indicated that successful spellers use phonological and morphological information as well as graphemic memory in their spelling. Research into spelling disorders has uncovered two broad categories of poor spellers: Phonetically Inaccurate spellers, whose spelling errors are phonetically unrelated to the target and who also exhibit a generalized language impairment and Phonetically Accurate spellers, whose errors are phonetically plausible and who have no obvious neurological impairment. This study intended to investigate some of the organizational and language abilities of those children known as Phonetically Accurate or Atrocious spellers. The hypothesis was that Atrocious spellers have inadequate knowledge of the phonological and morphological rules necessary for correct spelling. Three phonological processes were under examinations Palatalization, Velar Softening and Stress Shift, Test items incorporated one or more of these processes. Subjects performed three spelling tasks two written spelling tasks with oral presentation of the item and one spelling task without auditory model and three language tasks. The first, Suffixation, required subjects to pronounce real and nonsense words derived from a root word and affix. Subjects also judged relatedness of word pairs and learned nonsense words which either did or did not employ the target processes correctly. Because of the "partial cue" reading method employed by the subjects, it was impossible to determine their knowledge of phonology through the Suffixation task. However, the data gave rise to some interesting considerations. Review of the historical development of spelling suggested possible parallels between synchronic and diachronic development of spelling. Poor handwriting was linked to poor spelling and a rationale was proposed. Several instances of motor perseveration of writing were noted, suggesting that for these cases, the stimulus of the motor pattern was stronger than an auditory model. Some evidence for word recall problems appeared; a confrontation naming task would determine whether the incidence of word finding difficulties is higher in Atrocious spellers than in proficient spellers, Errors in affixation led to further questioning of subjects' morphological competence. Atrocious and good spellers employed a spelling strategy known as "sounding out" with varying degrees of proficiency. The question was then raised of how strongly spelling errors were influenced by the speller's dialect of spoken language. Most notably, nearly all test subjects favoured an auditory over a visual strategy when they were unsure of spelling. This translation from morpheme to phoneme string and then to grapheme string was felt to be developmentally an earlier stage than a direct translation from morpheme to grapheme. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

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Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to construct a spelling kit to improve the spelling of pupils in the secondary school. The Guinta Spelling Kit was the result of the writer's review of the literature on spelling to find a method, presentation of materials, word list, and evaluative technique which would best suit the individual needs of pupils. Pupils are able to teach and test themselves with the following material contained in the Kit: 1. Dictation Pre-test of twenty sentences using Pollock's forty words most frequently misspelled in high school and in college. 2. Student Notebook containing: a. "How to Succeed in Spelling with the Guinta Spelling Kit!" b. "Record of Dictation Pre-Test" c. "Words I Will Learn to Spell" d. "Letter to Student" e. "Directions for Using the G. S. K. Workbook" f. "Synonym Context Test" g. "Answer Key for the Synonym Context Test" h. "Progress Chart." 3. The G. S. K. Workbook, a programmed instruction workbook which uses a multi-method to learn to spell Pollock's forty words. Students are to construct written responses in at least nine linear frames which require: a. Seeing each word in context b. Learning a definition for each word c. Dividing each word into syllables d. Learning the origin of each word e. Saying each word f. Using each word in an original sentence. 4. Teacher's Handbook listing: a. "Introduction" b. "Materials in the Guinta Spelling Kit" c. "Basic Steps of the Guinta Spelling Kit" d. "What Does the Teacher Do?" / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University

The Phonic Inventories are a three level spelling test which was developed to enable identification of the patterns of spelling error made by children, as an aid for teachers and therapists. The aim of this study is to test the assumptions of face validity, content validity, construct validity and discriminant validity of the Phonic Inventories, as well as their short and long-term reliability. This has been done by using both longitudinal and cross-sectional datasets from 1979 and 2001. The results of the study indicate that the three levels of the instrument are reliable, and that they have potential for clinical as well as classroom use in determining which alphabetic rules learners have or have not acquired. They also have potential for use by teachers for screening purposes, with the aim of identifying learners experiencing difficulties in learning the rule systems used in reading and writing.

A standardized test of spelling ability, Test of Written Spelling – 4, was used to explore the error patterns of Grade 3 and Grade 5 students in public and private schools in the southwestern region of the US. The study was for the purpose of examining the relationship between types of errors students make within a grade level (Grades 3 & 5 for this study), and the students’ spelling proficiency. A qualitative analysis of errors on the Test of Written Spelling – 4 (TWS-4) resulted in distributions of errors categorized as phonological, phonetic, orthographic, etymological, and morphological. For both Grades 3 and 5, a higher proportion of phonological and phonetic errors were made by students in the lowest spelling achievement group. Students with higher standard spelling scores made a lower proportion of phonological and phonetic errors and a higher proportion of errors categorized as etymological and morphological. The Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF; Mather, Allen, Hammill, & Roberts, 2004) was also administered to the students to examine the relationship of these error types to literacy. The correlation between reading fluency standard scores and phonological and phonetic errors was negative, whereas the correlation between reading fluency and orthographic, etymological, and morphological error types was positive. This study underscores the value of looking at spelling achievement as a part of students’ literacy profiles. In addition, the study highlights the importance of making sure students beyond the years of very early reading and spelling development (Grades 3-5), especially those with low spelling proficiency, have the basic skills of phonological awareness and basic sound/symbol correspondences in place to support their ability to spell and to read, and that spelling must be taught in such a way as to meet students’ individual student needs.