An Analysis of Students’ Knowledge in Spelling: A Case of a Technical University in Ghana

• Authors: Atatsi Eli Ayawo , Amoakohene Benjamin

Abstracts

EN

High proficiency level in spelling is considered to be an important literally skill writers need to be able to establish shared meaning with their readers. However, the Applied Linguistic literature reveals that spelling errors dominantly plaque the essays of students who speak English as Second Language (ESL). In lieu with this, this study sheds light on students’ knowledge in spelling in a Technical University in Ghana. The participants for the study involve 275 students who were randomly selected from three academic levels. The random sampling procedure was further used by the researchers to select 30 English words out of 50 words that have been compiled by the Communicative Skills Unit as the most consistent misspelled words in the written English essays of students of the Technical University over a period of four years. The respondents were further tested on how well they could spell those words. The findings confirm three main types of spelling errors: “insertion errors”, “substitution errors” and “transposition errors”. The findings further reveal that the students’ inability to correctly spell most of the words that were dictated to them is a result of their unfamiliarity with the words, their inability to account for the right pronunciation associated with those words that were dictated to them as well as the failure of students to edit their work after the spelling exercise. It is also confirmed that the academic levels of the students do not have a significant influence on their performance in the spelling.

Keywords

EN

Spelling errors; Transposition errors; Insertion errors; Substitution errors

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej. Language and Society Research Committee
• Journal: Language, Discourse & Society
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 239-257
• Document type: Original Article

Dates

published

2019-06-30

Contributors

author

Atatsi Eli Ayawo

• Ho Technical University, Department of Applied Modern Languages and Communication, Ghana

author

Amoakohene Benjamin

• University of Health and Allied Sciences, Department of General and Liberal Studies, Ghana

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Notes

EN