The study is concerned with improving the spelling performance of below average spellers in an upper primary mainstream classroom setting. The main target group is children who do not qualify for learning support resources yet have difficulty thriving in the literacy area of spelling. It was expected that lessons designed to expand students’ knowledge about words and the English language system would generate a greater student facility with learning spellings. A quasi-experimental methodological approach was taken which also has features of a controlled trials study. Four spelling intervention lesson programs were designed and each has a different pedagogic emphasis: 1) Metacognitive and multisensory learning strategies 2) Teacher-Best-Practice 3) Teacher designed inquiry-based group work 4) Learning with a computer-based Team Learning System. The study design is both practical and pragmatic in that only resources already available to the schools were utilised; lesson formats and teaching practices can be easily replicated; and the spelling programs are compatible with NSW curriculum directives. The intervention lesson program took place for one hour per week over a two-term period and involved four schools situated in the outer areas of Sydney, Australia. Students and teachers in nine upper primary classrooms took part in the study, five of which were intervention classes and four were non-intervention classes. The classroom teachers were an important factor in the program presentation and lessons with an explicit focus on words were conducted from a constructivist perspective. Results indicate that when spelling becomes an instructional focus, substantial progress in performance levels can be made in both intervention and non-intervention classrooms. Discussion of the findings examines how pedagogic factors influenced learning outcomes for all ability groups in the literacy area of spelling. Particular attention is given to the progress in spelling age made by below average performers, as determined on pre-testing, and students with lower than normal cognitive ability. It is considered that the more interactive approach to teaching spelling, plus a high level of congruence with the Quality Teaching model (NSW DET, 2003) elements of Engagement, High-order Thinking, and Substantive Communication, assisted these target groups of students in the intervention classes. The principal conclusion that can be drawn from the findings of the study is that minimal modifications to teaching practices can bring about improvement in students’ spelling performance levels. It illustrates the capacity of children to advance their learning outcomes when lessons are designed and delivered in a manner that encourages engagement and interactive support. Such a conclusion directs the responsibility for students’ learning outcomes to their classroom teachers. The study identifies that there are implications for the providers of in-service and pre-service professional development of teachers situated in upper primary mainstream classrooms, and the pedagogic aspirations of the primary school community. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

The first part of this report consists of a theoretical survey of the metalinguistic domain, the main focus being upon metaphonological abilities. Metaphonological tasks are analyzed in terms of cognitive demands and degree of automaticity. The importance of metaphonological abilities for reading, spelling, and dyslexia is discussed on the basis of this theoretical analysis. It is assumed that metaphonological abilities are a prerequisite for learning to read and spell.In the second part results from three empirical studies are reported. In the first one 46 dyslexies and their matched control group were studied during their first three years at school. The development of metaphonological skills (segmentation, sound blending, sound position analysis, and segment deletion), language skills, cognitive abilities, reading, and spelling skills was studied on several occasions. The main purpose of this longitudinal study was to gain a better understanding of the causal relationship between metaphonological abilities and reading and spelling. Several causal structural equation models were tested by the LISREL method. The results supported the hypothesis that metaphonological abilities have a causal influence on reading and spelling while no support was found for a reverse causal influence.The purpose of Study II was to investigate the development of metaphonological skills. Two randomly selected classes were given four different metaphonological tests (segmentation, sound blending, sound position analysis and segment deletion) in grade 1 and grade 2. The results showed that metaphonological abilities undergo a substantial increase during the first years at school. The performance on metaphonological tasks was also very sensitive to small variations in task demands.In Study III the effects of metaphonological training on segmentation, blending and spelling were experimentally investigated in grade 1. There was a significant effect of training in the segmentaion and blending tasks. However, the effect of metaphonological training on spelling was significant only for the children with the lowest segmentation and blending pretest performance.The main conclusions to be drawn from the three studies were that metaphonological abilities are of critical importance for learning to read and spell. Furthermore, metaphonological abilities develop during a rather long period and some children might profit from carefully designed metaphonological training tasks in order to prevent reading and spelling disorders. / digitalisering@umu

Spelling is often a lightning rod in discussions on literacy. The general public, as well as educators, often judge the state of literacy by the occurrence of accurate, conventional spelling (Templeton & Morris, 1999). The purpose of this study was to reveal how students employ strategies in their spelling and how spelling strategies were being taught in their classrooms. This study also sought to uncover teachers, parents, and students perspectives and knowledge regarding spelling.<p>Case studies of six elementary school students were conducted. Each student was interviewed, along with their teachers and one of their parents. Students also filled out a self-reflection form. Students and teachers were observed in their classroom setting.<p>Findings indicated that students used a variety of strategies. The primary strategy articulated was sounding out; the better spellers also used analogy and visualization. Students knew and often used the strategies encouraged by their teachers and parents. The literature linked the processes of reading, spelling and writing. Most of the participants mentioned the connection between reading and spelling, but failed to recognize the importance of writing for spelling. A third finding was that the teachers had adopted new methods for teaching spelling but had not altered their role to provide for increased learning.<p> Implications for practice include suggestions for combined methods for teaching spelling, explicit teaching of strategies for all students, and teacher education that includes reflection and action (Ritchie & Wilson, 2000, p. 88).

Spelling is often a lightning rod in discussions on literacy. The general public, as well as educators, often judge the state of literacy by the occurrence of accurate, conventional spelling (Templeton & Morris, 1999). The purpose of this study was to reveal how students employ strategies in their spelling and how spelling strategies were being taught in their classrooms. This study also sought to uncover teachers, parents, and students perspectives and knowledge regarding spelling.<p>Case studies of six elementary school students were conducted. Each student was interviewed, along with their teachers and one of their parents. Students also filled out a self-reflection form. Students and teachers were observed in their classroom setting.<p>Findings indicated that students used a variety of strategies. The primary strategy articulated was sounding out; the better spellers also used analogy and visualization. Students knew and often used the strategies encouraged by their teachers and parents. The literature linked the processes of reading, spelling and writing. Most of the participants mentioned the connection between reading and spelling, but failed to recognize the importance of writing for spelling. A third finding was that the teachers had adopted new methods for teaching spelling but had not altered their role to provide for increased learning.<p> Implications for practice include suggestions for combined methods for teaching spelling, explicit teaching of strategies for all students, and teacher education that includes reflection and action (Ritchie & Wilson, 2000, p. 88).

<p>Although most models of reading development present orthographic knowledge as a more advanced and later developing form of knowledge than phonological knowledge, this dissertation presents a model of the development of orthographic knowledge in which generalized orthographic knowledge, the knowledge of symbol patterns within and across words, develops early, at the same time as phonological knowledge and before lexicalized representations of a whole word. However, because phonological and generalized orthographic knowledge are not fully integrated, phonological knowledge masks orthographic knowledge in typical measures of literacy. </p><p>In study 1 pre-readers' knowledge of the elements that make up words was tested using eye-tracking as a measure of implicit knowledge. We find that pre-reading children as young as 3 have implicit orthographic knowledge regarding the elements that make up words. This supports the prediction that generalized orthographic knowledge develops before lexicalized knowledge. </p><p>In study 2, children's creative spellings were used to gauge children's implicit knowledge of letter patterns in a naturalistic setting. We find that kindergarteners in particular tend to rely on phonology over orthography when the two are in conflict. This supports the hypothesis that phonological knowledge can mask orthographic knowledge.</p><p>In study 3, children were asked to decode non-words and their implicit knowledge of letter patterns was measured using eye tracking. I found that early readers show some implicit knowledge when decoding, This supports the hypothesis that generalized orthographic knowledge can be measured in literacy tasks under certain testing conditions. </p><p>In study 4, children's phonological and orthographic knowledge was tested directly by asking children to sound out and select the best word. Results show that sensitivity to orthographic violations is decreased when phonology is introduced. This is a direct test of the hypothesis that phonological knowledge can mask orthographic knowledge, and findings support this hypothesis. </p><p>These results suggest that pre-readers show generalized orthographic knowledge before lexicalized knowledge and concurrently with phonological knowledge. Furthermore, this generalized orthographic knowledge initially presents itself implicitly, and in many early literacy tasks the orthographic domain is dominated by phonological concerns. Essentially, orthographic and phonological knowledge develop at the same time; however, until children learn to integrate the two dimensions of written language, they rely on one source over the other.</p> / Dissertation

Given the importance of the role of spelling in literacy, it is important to have knowledge of the linguistic features that allow students to be successful spellers. Having phonological, morphological, and orthographic knowledge is essentially important to spell conventionally. In the United States, the standard language is Academic English (AE). African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is considered a deviation from AE, with its own sound system. AAVE is the most widely used form of dialect in the United States. Many students who speak AAVE may have difficulties in producing the correct spelling of AE words. The overall purpose of this study was to provide sixth-grade students, who are speakers of AAVE, with an eight-week intervention in the principles of phonology, morphology, and orthography that would assist them in improving their spelling performance. Students had similar scores on all spelling and dialect pretest measures before the intervention began. The research design was a pretest/posttest/posttest design using waitlist- control. This study included 142 students divided into 14 class sections taught by two teachers. The two teachers provided the intervention to the students. The experimental group consisted of seven classes, and the control group consisted of seven classes. After the first implementation of the intervention, the study was replicated with the control group of students. MANOVA was utilized to determine the effect of the intervention. The intervention produced large effects for the students who received the spelling instruction. The results from the criterion-referenced spelling assessments and a sentence writing task revealed that students who received explicit instruction from the intervention made gains in their spelling performance from pretest/posttest 1/posttest 2 and maintained these gains after being tested eight weeks later. Practical and theoretical recommendations are provided for teachers and researchers. Suggested recommendations include: providing teacher training that will enable teachers to be more linguistically aware of AAVE and its features, making students aware of the difference in the AAVE and the AE sound system, and conducting more research-based studies that will assist speakers of AAVE in literacy and spelling.

One of the main differences between English monolinguals and English language learners is that the latter use their knowledge of their first language in spelling in English. Previous studies have shown that the nature of first language affects spelling in English. One of the factors which influence spelling in English is the phonology of first language. The main aim of this study was to examine the spelling performance in English among students whose first language was Arabic in two novel phonemes (/p/ and /v/) and their phoneme pairs (/f/ and /v/). The analyses were based on a dictation task. There were eight target words for each phoneme. Each word had a target phoneme embedded in the initial or the final position. There were 99 Arabic speaking participants from fourth grade whose performance was compared with 40 monolingual English speaking participants. Findings of the present study indicated that the Arabic participants had particular difficulty in spelling the novel phonemes /p/ and /v/ with large effect size. The participants mostly confused these two phonemes with their phoneme pairs and spelled /p/ as b and /v/ as f. The Arabic participants also had some difficulty in spelling the phoneme pairs /p/ and /v/, and spelled /b/ as p and /f/ and v. This finding had a medium effect size. Finally, both groups of participants generally performed better when the target phoneme was in the initial position. The present study is a contribution to the current literature about the effect of first language on spelling in English. In order to establish a universal theory about how language learners acquire the English spelling and to compare and contrast the acquisition of spelling of native speakers of English and English language learners, it is fundamental to examine the world's various languages and their effect on second language spelling acquisition. Additionally, the findings of this study can provide practical implications for language literacy classes which are designed for Arabic students.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-140). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-140). Also available on the Internet.