Spelling is one of the most important components of writing at single-word level and is regarded as a vital part of written communication. Also spelling is seen as an important tool in writing. Without the ability to spell as a broader aspect of writing, a person could not be called literate in the conventional sense of the word. Although the spelling is so important, learners in the foundation phase especially in grade three commit interlingual spelling errors. This means that at this stage learners transfer patterns of the mother tongue to the second language. By so doing that they write English words as the way they are pronounced in their mother tongue. Hence this study investigated grade three teachers’ strategies to help English second language learners overcome interlingual spelling errors. In exploring these strategies this study adopted a qualitative approach in order to ensure reliability and validity of the study. The data gathering instruments used included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis. One primary school in Mdantsane a township in East London District was purposively selected to form the context of the study. The medium of instruction in this school is isiXhosa in the foundation phase and English is taught as a subject. Two teachers and their classes participated in this study. The findings of the study revealed that different factors contribute to interlingual spelling errors. These factors are status of the parent (they were illiterate), pronunciation, language borrowing and language transfer. It is also revealed that teachers have a limited number of strategies to teach learners overcome interlingual spelling errors instead they use strategies to teach spelling generally.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufh/vital:26548 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Rululu, Nomfusi Gladys |
| Publisher | University of Fort Hare, Faculty of Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, M Ed |
| Format | 102 leaves; 30 cm, pdf |
| Rights | University of Fort Hare |
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