M.Ed. / A concern with regard to the apparent drop in achievement levels in the area of literacy and the implementation of the Teaching Handwriting Spelling and Spelling Skills (THRASS) programme, introduced as part of the strategy to address the problem, prompted this research. A qualitative case study was undertaken in order to determine 1. The experiences of the Foundation Phase teachers from Grade 1 to Grade 3 with regard to THRASS in the first year of implementation. 2. The influence of THRASS on the spelling ages the spelling strategies and the independent written of the Foundation Phase learners. 3. Imperatives for management when introducing new programmes into schools. Using the chronological age of the learners as the baseline indicator the findings indicated that an age appropriate development in the spelling age of the Grade 1 learners. These results were similar to those of 2006 when a different system was being used. On average the Grade 2 and Grade 3 learners had a spelling age which was a year or more greater than their chronological age. These results were better than those recorded in 2006. The learners were using the majority of the strategies embedded in the THRASS programme and were experiencing greater confidence when attempting to complete independent written tasks. No conclusive evidence indicated the influence of THRASS on the independent written work of the learners. There was, however, evidence in support of the finding that the learners were using the majority of the strategies embedded in the programme. It became apparent, with regard to management, that ensuring the sustainability of programmes requires as much attention as the implementation of the programmes.

"This study was designed to explore the possibilities of sleep instruction in spelling and to determine approximately seven weeks later the amount of recall which could be attributed to the sleep instruction. It is presented primarily as an attempt to develop methodology which might be useful for larger and more complex studies"--Introduction. / "June 6, 1953." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Ralph L. Witherspoon, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-42).

This thesis is formed of two papers. The first paper is concerned with the construction and design of the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure (SSEM), based upon the constructs that children have about learning to spell and findings from a literature search. The second paper further develops the SSEM, carrying out a large test administration and validation, and then exploring relationships between perceived efficacy beliefs and spelling ability. The rationale to create a measure of spelling self-efficacy originally stemmed from conversations with teachers during my placement experiences as a trainee educational psychologist. It was often the case that children in schools were not making progress in literacy, despite ongoing and high quality intervention and support. I carried out a literature review and found that the majority of spelling support packages were focused on building children’s mastery of skills rather than any focus on the emotional aspects of learning. I had many conversations with teachers about ways in which they could support children’s beliefs in their capabilities to learn, and had positive reviews with lots of school staff about how this had helped them make interventions more personalised to the child. The two papers in this thesis outline the steps taken to develop and construct the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure. There were originally five domains underpinning the Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure: Belief in Own Ability to Learn to Spell; Belief in Learner Characteristics; Belief in the Need for Help from Others; Belief in Phonological Awareness; and Belief in Technical Understanding of Spelling. These five areas were condensed through analysis in both Paper 1 and Paper 2 to propose a revised Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure underpinned by three domains: Phonological Awareness, Learner Independence and Optimism in Abilities; Learner Confidence and Resilience. The Spelling Self-Efficacy Measure has been found to be a reliable and valid scale to explore children’s perceived efficacy beliefs about learning to spell. Consistent with existing research, significant correlations have been found between a child’s spelling ability and their level of spelling self-efficacy, as measured by the SSEM.

No description available.

Many studies point to visual memory as one component which discriminates good from poor spellers. This experiment sought to increase students' use of visual memory, and thereby affect spelling scores in the classroom.

<p>English spelling is without a doubt a complicated matter, and learners around the world have trouble getting the letters right. My aim in this paper is to investigate what words are particularly difficult to spell for Swedish students in the ninth grade, what they think about spelling and English as a subject in general, and how important they consider correct spelling to be. In order to find this out, I distributed a questionnaire in two classes at secondary school. According to my study, a large number of the students find it important to spell correctly, and they also believe that their teacher would agree. A high percentage of the participants are positive towards studying English. Their most common way of getting in contact with English on a regular basis is via TV and movies. 97% of the students wrote that TV was their biggest source of contact with English. The results show no differences in spelling skills between the sexes and neither did the origin of the parents have any effect. The respondents find both Swedish and English spelling easy, but a number of frequently misspelled words have been identified.</p>

Recent research has begun focusing on the connections between reading and mathematics. Little research, however, has examined connections between mathematics and other reading related skills, such as spelling. Moreover, working memory may a play a significant role in both systems. Results indicated a significant predictive relationship between spelling and mathematics. Furthermore, this relationship was found to be partially mediated by measures of phonological working memory.

Teacher knowledge enhances instruction. Of particular importance for spelling instruction is literacy-related content teacher knowledge. This knowledge includes awareness of individual speech sounds, syllables, and morphemes in the English language. Teachers who possess this knowledge are better able to assess student needs and design instruction that meets those needs so that students learn to spell well. In this study, 36 preservice teachers and 38 inservice teachers completed a survey and three measures. The survey asked teachers to calibrate their knowledge of phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. The measures assessed the teachers’ literacy-related content knowledge and their ability to use this knowledge to analyze student spelling errors and choose appropriate instructional activities to meet student needs. Overall, the preservice teachers were more positive in their assessments of their literacy-related content knowledge while the inservice teachers demonstrated greater literacy-related content knowledge. Neither group was adept in analyzing students’ spelling errors although the inservice teachers were better able to choose appropriate instructional activities.

A growing body of literature has provided evidence of the contribution of various metalinguistic skills to children's English literacy development; however, most of the studies focused on reading outcomes while spelling outcomes have been under-researched. Further, very few studies have been conducted to investigate if the results based on native English speakers can be generalized to speakers of other languages who are learning to read and spell in English. In this study, the simultaneous influence of phonological, morphological and orthographic knowledge that may impact English spelling acquisition, among Chinese students learning English as a foreign language in Grade 8 (n = 339) in mainland China and native English-speaking students in Grade 3 (n = 166) in the United States, was investigated. Measures in English tapping into the three aspects of metalinguistic skills—phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA) and orthographic awareness (OA)—were administered to both groups. Multi-group structural equation models were used to compare models between the Chinese and the American group. Results showed that 1) the overall model of metalinguistic skills predicting spelling outcome was highly similar between the American and the Chinese groups; 2) metalinguistic skills were correlated and worked in concert to compose the linguistic repertoire construct which concurrently predicted the spelling outcome; 3) MA was the major component, compared to PA and OA, of Linguistic Repertoire (LING) across the two groups. Linguistic repertoire explained 64.1 percent and 40.2 percent of the total variance in the spelling outcome for the American and the Chinese groups, respectively; and 4) the contribution of OA was greater in the Chinese group than it was in the American group, whereas the contribution of PA was greater in the American group than it was in the Chinese group. This study highlights the important contribution of MA to literacy development among both the American students and the Chinese students. It also sheds light on the influence of first language (L1) orthography on English literacy acquisition. That OA contributed more than PA to the LING construct may reflect that the English learners with L1-Chinese background have enhanced visual-orthographic processing skills. This study challenges phase models of literacy development that claim MA only contributes to literacy acquisition late in the process and offers some empirical evidence to support the emerging "linguistic repertoire" theory of literacy development.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.