What Lies Beneath Turkish Middle Graders' EFL Spelling Errors?

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Bilingual Education Across Languages

Abstract

English word spelling errors of non-native speakers are not random. Rather, they originate from the speller’s assumptions about word spelling in both native and target language as well as hypotheses drawn from various linguistic and metalinguistic systems integral to spelling. The present study, along these lines, is a systematic analysis of a sample of real word spelling errors (N: 1400) made by native Turkish middle schoolers (N: 100) in grades 6, 7, and 8 in Turkey. The results of the error analyses of the present study revealed that English phonology and orthography, but not morphology, were the two significant predictors of English word spelling errors by Turkish middle-schoolers. The study aims to assist EFL instructors in preparing spelling instruction curriculum.

Authors

• Melike Ünal Gezer, Başkent University

• L. Quentin Dixon, Texas A&M University - College Station

• R. Malatesha Joshi, Texas A&M University