This research is concerned with an investigation into the development of a formal diagnostic assessment tool for spelling in the foundation phase. A literature study and information acquired from educators provided information to compile a suitable spelling list that could be used as a diagnostic tool in the foundation phase. A self-designed questionnaire was administered to fifty educators Who provided their expert opinion regard the spelling list. This was followed up by second questionnaire that was based on the analysis and interpretation of the first. The Delphi-technique was applied to this investigation. The study was complete when consensus was reached among the educators with regard to which words should be included in the final spelling list. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

This research is concerned with an investigation into the development of a formal diagnostic assessment tool for spelling in the foundation phase. A literature study and information acquired from educators provided information to compile a suitable spelling list that could be used as a diagnostic tool in the foundation phase. A self-designed questionnaire was administered to fifty educators Who provided their expert opinion regard the spelling list. This was followed up by second questionnaire that was based on the analysis and interpretation of the first. The Delphi-technique was applied to this investigation. The study was complete when consensus was reached among the educators with regard to which words should be included in the final spelling list. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Psychology of Education)

M.Ed. / The purpose of this study is primarily to evaluate the curriculum of the subject Communication English with specific reference to the component of reading and spelling. The rationale is to determine whether or not the reading and spelling skills of college students comply with the requirements of the private sector and, if found to be inadequate, appropriate recommendations would be made. The detrimental effect of reading and spelling problems on a person's entire being and self-actualization is attested by the literature. A needs analysis was done by means of questionnaires to establish how the course makes provision for various aspects of a communicative language curriculum. The questionnaires were completed by three groups, these being the N2 and N3 students, the lecturers of Communication English and various members of the private sector. For purposes of this study only the relevant questions concerning reading and spelling from the questionnaires were highlighted. The results of the reading and spelling tests showed that there is a significant discrepancy between the students' reading and spelling ages and their chronological ages, it would appear as if they are below the required norm by approximately four years. From the responses of the questionnaires it was apparent that a high premium was attached to competence in reading and spelling skills.

La lecture et l’écriture sont deux activités complexes qui contribuent à la réussite dans toutes les disciplines scolaires. Pour l’apprenti scripteur, et plus particulièrement pour l’élève qui éprouve des difficultés d’apprentissage (notamment l’élève dyslexique), l’apprentissage de l’orthographe représente un réel défi et nécessite souvent des années d’effort. Or, la connaissance du code orthographique constitue le socle sur lequel se construit la compétence orthographique. La reconnaissance et la production de mots écrits impliquent la mise en place d’un noyau de connaissances communes se rapportant aux connaissances orthographiques, c’est-à-dire aux connaissances rattachées aux propriétés phonologiques, morphologiques et visuelles du code orthographique. Ainsi, tout au long du développement de la compétence orthographique, le lecteur-scripteur doit notamment construire des représentations orthographiques de plus en plus stables et mieux définies qui tiennent compte de l’ensemble des propriétés du code orthographique. Des données empiriques récentes indiquent toutefois que les élèves dyslexiques, qui commettent davantage d’erreurs orthographiques de fusion et de segmentation de mots que les élèves sans difficulté à l’écrit, ne semblent pas disposer de représentations orthographiques précises des mots à orthographier, et plus spécifiquement de bonnes représentations du début et de la fin des mots. L’objectif général de cette étude est donc d’expliquer les erreurs orthographiques de frontières lexicales chez les élèves dyslexiques. Comme à notre connaissance, il n’existe pas de norme quant au développement des connaissances des frontières lexicales chez les élèves normo-lecteurs/scripteurs, le premier objectif spécifique est de décrire, de façon transversale et longitudinale, les performances d’élèves normo-lecteurs/scripteurs de la maternelle à la 4e année du primaire à des épreuves évaluant les connaissances des frontières lexicales (étude 1). La mise en place de cette référence développementale a permis de répondre au deuxième objectif spécifique qui est d’évaluer les connaissances des frontières lexicales d’élèves dyslexiques du primaire (étude 2). Pour évaluer les compétences en lecture et en production de mots, une épreuve de lecture de la batterie de tests du K-ABC et une dictée de mots insérés en contexte phrastique ont été proposées. Trois épreuves (décision lexicale, identification lexicale et permutation lexicale), variant en termes de degré de contraintes cognitives, ont été effectuées par tous les participants à l’oral et à l’écrit afin d’évaluer leurs connaissances des frontières lexicales. / Reading and writing are two complex activities that contribute to success in all school subjects. For apprentice writers, and particularly for students with learning difficulties (notably students with dyslexia), learning to spell represents a real challenge and often requires years of effort. To be successful, students require knowledge of the orthographic code, which is the foundation upon which spelling ability it built. To recognize and produce written words, students must develop a set of core skills that are linked to orthographic knowledge, including knowledge of the phonological, morphological and visual properties of the orthographic code. As their spelling skills develop, readers and writers must construct increasingly stable and better defined orthographic representations that reflect the properties of the orthographic code. However, recent empirical research has found that students with dyslexia, who tend to make more errors related to word merging and segmentation than students without writing difficulties, do not seem to have accurate orthographic representations of the words they are trying to spell, particularly of the beginnings and endings of words. Therefore, the general aim of this study is to explain spelling errors occurring at word boundaries in dyslexic children. To our knowledge, no typical trajectory of development has been established for normally-developing readers/writers with regards to knowledge of lexical boundaries. Therefore, using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, this study’s first objective is to describe the performances of normally-developing reader and writers from kindergarten to grade 4 on tasks related to lexical boundary knowledge (Study 1). With this developmental reference having been established, the second study will evaluate lexical boundary knowledge in primary school students with dyslexia (study 2). To evaluate ability in reading and word production, a reading test from the K-ABC battery and a dictation task requiring students to insert words in the context of a sentence were administered. To evaluate knowledge of lexical boundaries, three tasks (a lexical decision task, a lexical identification task, and a lexical permutation task) were completed by all participants in oral and written form, each of which varied according to the level of cognitive constraint involved in completing the task.

Teachers of beginning writers, who believe in a whole language philosophy for teaching language arts, are faced with the challenge of integrating spelling instruction into their writing programs. Traditional approaches that involve word lists and weekly spelling tests are not in accordance with whole language beliefs.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine the practical value of selecting upper primary spelling words from the developmental reading program. Two major aspects of the study were: (1) Will upper-primary children more easily learn to spell words which have previously appeared in their developmental reading program? (2) Will they retain the spelling or those words longer than other words of similar spelling difficulty?

No description available.

Föreliggande studies syfte är att undersöka hur tre svensklärare som undervisar i årskurs 2 och 3 stöttar elevernas stavningsutveckling. För att samla in studiens data används metoden Design-based Research (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012) där observationer visar hur de deltagande lärarna genomför stavningsundervisning samtidigt som intervjuer används för att se hur studiens deltagare säger sig planera och utvärdera sin stavningsundervisning. Med hjälp av observationer och semistrukturerade intervjuer har relevant data för studiens syfte samlats in. Studiens teoretiska ram grundar sig i det sociokulturella perspektivet med utgångspunkt i begreppet stöttning. Vidare analyseras studiens insamlade data med hjälp av fem stöttningskomponenter: ägarskap, lämplighet, struktur, samarbete och internalisering (Langer & Applebee, 1986). Observationerna visar att studiens deltagare genomför sin stavningsundervisning med en liknande struktur. Däremot framkommer det av intervjuerna att endast en av tre deltagare kontinuerligt undervisar om stavningsregler. Samma deltagare väljer också att rätta alla uppkomna stavfel, medan de andra deltagarna väljer att göra olika beroende på situation. Dessa två deltagare är rädda att för hård stavningsrättning hämmar elevernas skrivlust. Trots att deltagarna har olika syn på effektiv stavningsundervisning och väljer att arbeta på olika sätt kan vi urskilja de fem komponenterna av stöttning hos samtliga deltagare.

This field study examines the comparative effectiveness of traditional and humanistic teaching methods. In part I the origins of humanistic teaching and their relationship to Gestalt therapy are considered. The influence of Humanistic education adult learning theory is also discussed. Part I concludes with an assessment of humanistic teaching. Part II: To measure the comparative effectiveness of the humanistic and traditional teaching methods, three groups of first year students in General English classess in a College of Technical and Further Education were selected. The effectiveness was measured in terms of differences in 1. Self-esteem. 2. Spelling Ability. 3. Attrition rates. 4 Academic Results. It can be concluded that there is: No difference in measures of self-esteem between groups, on the basis of the teaching method used. A large increase in the measure of self-esteem was observed in one of the groups that was taught with humanistic teaching strategies. Spelling measures showed no significant changes in any of the groups. Attrition rates were significantly reduced in groups that received humanistic teaching. Academic results of students completing the course showed no significant differences.