A synthesis of spelling and reading interventions and their effects on the spelling outcomes of students with LD

Previous research studies examining the effects of spelling and reading interventions on the spelling outcomes of students with learning disabilities (LD) are synthesized. An extensive search of the professional literature between 1995 and 2003 yielded a total of 19 intervention studies that provided spelling and reading interventions to students with LD and measured spelling outcomes. Findings revealed that spelling outcomes were consistently improved following spelling interventions that included explicit instruction with multiple practice opportunities and immediate corrective feedback after the word was misspelled. Furthermore, evidence from spelling interventions that employed assistive technology aimed at spelling in written compositions indicated positive effects on spelling outcomes.     

Implicit and explicit instruction of spelling rules

The study aimed to compare the differential effectiveness of explicit and implicit instruction of two Dutch spelling rules. Students with and without spelling disabilities were instructed a spelling rule either implicitly or explicitly in two experiments. Effects were tested in a pretest-intervention-posttest control group design. Experiment 1 suggested that explicit instruction of a morphological spelling rule led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities and to rule-based knowledge in students without. Implicit instruction led to instance-based knowledge in students with spelling disabilities, and in the group without spelling disabilities no learning at all occurred. Experiment 2 revealed that explicit and implicit instruction of an orthographical spelling rule were equally effective in both groups and that the spelling knowledge they had acquired was instance-based. Findings suggest that explicit instruction is more effective than implicit instruction for the teaching of spelling rules when generalization is aimed at.     

自然拼读在英语教学中的运用探析

教师在英语教学的过程中可以积极运用自然拼读法,架起单拼与拼写的桥梁,帮助学生提高单词拼读能力。文章从自然拼读法的教学应用必要性、自然拼读法的优点、自然拼读法在英语教学中的应用策略和应注意的问题等方面进行研究。     

Theoretical beliefs and instructional practices used for teaching spelling in elementary classrooms

The current study aimed to examine teachers’ reported spelling assessment and instruction practices. Analysis of the match between teachers’ theoretical beliefs about spelling and their reported pedagogy was conducted to elucidate factors that may support or impede the use of evidence-based teaching strategies in the classroom. An electronic survey was completed by 405 randomly selected (stratified by region and socioeconomic status) elementary school teachers in New Zealand. The survey examined the following areas: spelling assessment, spelling instruction, beliefs about spelling, preparing teachers to teach spelling, and teachers’ perceived strengths and weaknesses of their spelling program. There was large variability in spelling assessment and instructional practices across teachers. Most respondents reported implementing some aspects of a developmental approach to spelling instruction through analysis of children’s spelling errors (64 %) and/or individualization of the spelling program (60 %). There was a large dissociation between teachers’ beliefs about spelling and their frequency of use of specific instructional practices associated with those beliefs (e.g., phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge). The mismatch between beliefs and reported practice appeared to be due to lack of professional knowledge regarding implementing explicit spelling instruction and finding time to teach spelling within the curriculum. Increasing teachers’ knowledge about language structure, practical implementation of key assessment and instruction activities, and the links between spelling and other areas of the curriculum are important factors in improving spelling pedagogical practices.     

Capturing variations in how spelling is taught in primary school classrooms in England

Mastering spelling is important for children to progress in writing. The National Curriculum in England details spelling lists linked to each year group in primary education. Assessment practices also emphasise the importance of teaching spelling. However, to date, little is known about how teachers feel about teaching spelling nor the instructional methods that they use in primary schools in England. This study addresses this gap by investigating approaches to teaching spelling. An online survey was distributed to primary-based teaching staff with roles in supporting teaching and learning. The survey asked for information about the respondents’ teaching experience and school setting, and about their attitudes and approach to teaching spelling. The survey was completed in full by 158 respondents. Approaches to teaching spelling were varied and over two-thirds of the sample highlighted that their school did not have a spelling policy. The importance of explicit teaching of spelling was supported by the majority of teachers. This judgement was more frequent and rated more highly by teachers supporting younger children. Teachers largely reported devising their own spelling resources, highlighted that the curriculum spelling lists lack guidance for teaching spelling strategies and questioned their suitability for pupils of varying abilities. A range of spelling programmes and strategies were recorded. The findings provide insight into universal instructional approaches. Practical implications for teacher training and professional development are discussed.     

Spelling Remediation: a systematic long‐term approach to teaching spelling to an aphasic boy

TJ, a 10‐years, 7‐months‐old spelling‐disabled boy suffering from aphasia, was exposed to a spelling remediation programme introduced in the autumn term of Grade 4 and concluded in the spring term of Grade 6. A systematic strategy instructional approach was used to teach the boy 65 phonetically irregular words. The remedial spelling programme was successful in developing appropriate spelling strategies which were applied to the processing of these words and maintained at follow‐up at 2 months. Generalisation of programme effects was shown on standardised spelling tests administered during training. However, the programme did not seem to be very successful in lessening the disparity between the boy's spelling performance and average spelling performance for his grade. It was concluded that spelling‐disabled students suffering from neurological impairment probably need more cumulative training than other spelling‐disabled students. The potential role of a verbally orientated strategy approach in spelling remediation was also discussed in relation to a visually orientated approach.     

The effects of the copy, cover, compare approach in increasing spelling accuracy with learning disabled students

This study compared the traditional spelling approach of presenting a list of spelling words at the beginning of the week and a final test at the end of the week with a daily copy, cover, and compare spelling approach. Weekly spelling performance of nine special education students was measured in a ABAB single-subject design. Results indicated improved spelling performance during the copy, cover, and compare spelling phase of the experiment. This finding was replicated across all nine students. Questionnaires given to students at the end of the study revealed that all students preferred the copy, cover, and compare spelling method over the more traditional approach to spelling.     

Predicting early spelling: the contribution of children’s early literacy,private speech during spelling,behavioral regulation,and parental spelling support

The present study aimed to extend understanding of preschoolers’ early spelling using the Vygotskian (Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1978) paradigm of child development. We assessed the contribution of maternal spelling support in predicting children’s word spelling level beyond the contribution of three internal child measures: early literacy (phonological awareness and letter naming), private speech while spelling (self-directed talk), and behavioral regulation. Children’s private speech during spelling—their tool to regulate thinking—has not yet been studied in the early literacy context. Fifty Israeli preschoolers (M = 68.66 months) of middle-high SES were videotaped while spelling words with their mothers and while spelling these words independently. Children’s phonological awareness, letter naming, and behavioral regulation were assessed individually. Results showed that children’s internal measures (early literacy, private speech while spelling, and behavioral regulation) predicted children’s early spelling (63 % of the variance), and the external measure of maternal spelling support added uniquely (12 %), together explaining 75 % of the variance in children’s spelling level. Findings suggested that mothers adjust their spelling support to meet young children’s existing literacy skills but also coach children to strive toward higher spelling performance. Furthermore, the study illuminates the role of a new measure in the context of children’s early literacy—private speech during spelling.     

A review of recent research on spelling

Research on spelling ability has witnessed a vigorous but fragmented growth in the last decade. A theory on the cognitive mechanisms of spelling remains elusive, as does a unified approach to spelling instruction. The idea that spelling competence unfolds in a series of developmental stages has gained popularity. Despite a lack of clear empirical support for the model, its impact on spelling instruction in the schools is growing. Research on traditional issues in teaching spelling continues unabated (size of word list, time between practice and test, immediacy of feedback), as well as investigation on innovative approaches (computers, group instruction). A creative technique applied in the early grades is invented spelling. Although popular and widely applied, its effectiveness remains unclear. Research is beginning to indicate that reading and spelling may be separable but related cognitive processes and that spelling ability involves two processing systems-phonological and lexical. Finally, experiencing incorrect spellings may be detrimental to spelling performance, and more research is needed on this issue.     

Rapid serial naming is a unique predictor of spelling in children

Some previous research has shown strong associations between spelling ability and rapid automatic naming (RAN) after controls for phonological processing and nonsense-word reading ability, consistent with the double-deficit hypothesis in reading and spelling. Previous studies did not, however, control for nonsense-word spelling ability before assessing RAN--spelling associations. In this study, 65 children with poor spelling skills but average reasoning ability completed RAN tasks and spelling, reading, and reasoning tasks. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that, after controls for chronological age, reasoning ability, and spelling of nonsense words, alphanumeric RAN, but not nonalphanumeric RAN, was still a strong predictor of spelling acquisition. Findings are discussed in terms of single- and double-deficit models of spelling and implications for effective teaching.     

The Role of Instruction for Spelling Performance and Spelling Consciousness

This study examined the role of instruction for spelling performance and spelling consciousness in the Dutch language. Spelling consciousness is the ability to reflect on one's spelling and correct errors. A sample of 115 third-grade spellers was assigned to a strategy-instruction, strategic-monitoring, self-monitoring, or control condition representing different types of metacognitive aspects. The results showed that students in all three training conditions made more progress in both spelling performance and spelling consciousness than students in the control condition. With respect to spelling consciousness, only students in the strategy-instruction condition made significant improvement between pretest and posttest. Students made more progress in spelling performance on regular words than on loan words. Students in all four conditions became more accurate at assessing which words they could spell correctly. Students in the control condition more frequently overestimated their spelling ability.     

An evaluation of spelling pronunciations as a means of improving spelling of orthographic markers

In 4 studies we tested the efficacy of artificial, letter based pronunciations to support poor spellers in building up stable orthographic representations. In all 4 studies children’s spelling skills improved during training. However, the experimental group who was trained to articulate a spelling pronunciation before spelling the word did not show a larger benefit than a well matched control group receiving the same type of training, but without spelling pronunciations. Thus, in a series of well-controlled studies using different sets of training words and slightly different training methods spelling pronunciations turned out not to be of specific help to acquire word spellings. On the contrary, knowledge of spelling pronunciations seems to be a by-product of acquiring the correct spelling.     

Spelling of Inflected Verb Morphology in Children with Spelling Deficits

Children with spelling deficits demonstrate significant difficulty using inflectional morphology in their writing. This study investigated whether phonological deficits account for these pronounced difficulties or if they are more accurately explained by limitations in morphological or orthographic awareness. Twenty–six 11—13–year–old children with spelling deficits, 31 younger spelling–level–matched children, and 31 age–matched children were asked to spell a series of verbs with past tense and progressive markers in dictated sentences and in list form. Performance on spelling tasks was compared to performance on phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness tasks. Results suggest that children with spelling deficits have significant difficulty including inflections as well as spelling inflections and base words. Difficulty was most pronounced in a sentence context. Ability to spell inflectional forms was related to variation in morphological awareness in children with spelling deficits and to variation in orthographic awareness in spelling–level–matched children.     

Does spelling instruction make students better spellers,readers, and writers? A meta-analytic review

Despite the importance of spelling for both writing and reading, there is considerable disagreement regarding how spelling skills are best acquired. During this and virtually all of the last century, some scholars have argued that spelling should not be directly or formally taught as such instruction is not effective or efficient. We conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of experimental and quasi-experimental studies to address these claims. The corpus of 53 studies in this review included 6,037 students in kindergarten through 12th grade and yielded 58 effect sizes (ESs) that were used to answer eight research questions concerning the impact of formally teaching spelling on spelling, phonological awareness, reading, and writing performance. An average weighted ES was calculated for each question and the quality of included studies was systematically evaluated. Results provided strong and consistent support for teaching spelling, as it improved spelling performance when compared to no/unrelated instruction (ES = 0.54) or informal/incidental approaches to improving spelling performance (ES = 0.43). Increasing the amount of formal spelling instruction also proved beneficial (ES = 0.70). Gains in spelling were maintained over time (ES = 0.53) and generalized to spelling when writing (ES = 0.94). Improvements in phonological awareness (ES = 0.51) and reading skills (ES = 0.44) were also found. The positive outcomes associated with formal spelling instruction were generally consistent, regardless of students’ grade level or literacy skills.     

Pinch my wig or winch my pig: Spelling,spoonerisms and other language skills

Phonological processing skills have often been assumed to play a minimal role in skilled adult spelling despite evidence showing their importance in the development of spelling skills. The present study investigated the relationship between phonological awareness and spelling in adults. It was hypothesised that subjects demonstrating higher levels of spelling proficiency would also show superior phonological processing skills. This relationship was expected to be mediated by sound-spelling mapping knowledge. Given the irregularities of sound-spelling correspondences in English, it was also predicted that knowledge of orthographic conventions would be related to spelling competency. Two measures of each component skill were used on seventy three university students. As predicted, the importance of spelling-sound mapping skills in spelling were demonstrated, as was a relationship between phonological awareness and spelling-sound correspondences. In addition a moderate correlation was found between orthographic tasks and spelling performance. It was concluded that, among university students at least, phonological ability makes an important contribution to skilled adult spelling.     

Spelling as a self‐teaching mechanism in orthographic learning

The present study examined the possibility that spelling fulfils a self‐teaching function in the acquisition of orthographic knowledge because, like decoding, it requires close attention to letter order and identity as well as to word‐specific spelling–sound mapping. We hypothesised that: (i) spelling would lead to significant (i.e. above‐chance) levels of orthographic learning; (ii) spelling would actually result in superior learning relative to reading owing to the additional processing demands invoked when spelling; (iii) there would be stronger outcomes for post‐test spelling production compared with spelling recognition; and (iv) relative to reading, spelling would produce superior orthographic learning in the case of later‐occurring orthographic detail compared with information appearing earlier in the letter string. In a fully within‐subjects design, third grade Hebrew readers were exposed to novel letter strings presented in three conditions: spelling, reading and an unseen control condition. With the exception of the position by condition interaction (our fourth hypothesis), which, although in the expected direction, failed to attain significance, all hypotheses were supported. These data highlight yet another dimension of reading–writing reciprocity by suggesting that spelling offers a powerful self‐teaching tool in the compilation of word‐specific orthographic representations.     

The influences of language of literacy instruction and vocabulary on the spelling of Spanish–English bilinguals

The relation of language of instruction and vocabulary to the English spelling of bilingual first graders receiving either English or Spanish literacy instruction and of monolinguals in English literacy instruction was explored. Only bilingual students in Spanish literacy instruction (SLI) exhibited Spanish-influenced spelling, indicating a powerful effect of language of literacy instruction. SLI without English literacy instruction (ELI) may be a prerequisite for the appearance of Spanish influences in English spelling. Spanish-influenced spelling appears to be a normal developmental phenomenon only for those bilingual first graders who have received no ELI. The students in ELI, on average, wrote more orthographically plausible English pseudowords than students in SLI, indicating that the students in SLI simply had not yet learned conventional spelling patterns in English. In addition, children with good Spanish vocabulary showed more Spanish-influenced spelling, while English vocabulary predicted more orthographically plausible English spellings. The relationship between English vocabulary and English spelling was similar for children instructed in Spanish and English. English vocabulary and literacy instruction both made unique, positive contributions to English pseudoword␣spelling, while Spanish literacy instruction played a more important role than Spanish vocabulary in the production of Spanish-influenced spelling in English.     

Establishing word representations through reading and spelling: comparing degree of orthographic learning

Skilled reading involves rapid and automatic word recognition. Through a self‐teaching process, phonological decoding during reading is thought to establish the word‐specific representations in memory that support efficient word reading. Much is known about orthographic learning during reading; less is understood about this process during spelling. Here, we compared the degree of orthographic learning that occurs during reading and spelling. Forty‐eight children in Grade 2 practised reading or spelling nonwords within stories. Orthographic learning was measured using spelling recognition, spelling production and word naming tasks. Both readers and spellers showed evidence of orthographic learning; however, spellers outperformed readers on all tasks. Overall, results suggest that spelling sets up a higher quality representation in memory and highlight the importance of spelling in the development of word reading efficiency.     

The Development of Invented Spelling

Ninety-three children were tested on a variety of reading-related skills, including Tangel and Blachman's (1992) invented spelling measure, four times over 1.5 years. Results revealed that this measure of invented spelling was 1) stable, 2) highly associated with traditional phonological awareness tasks, and 3) substantially predictive of standardized spelling and word and nonword decoding tests over time. A measure of orthographic processing, as well as phonological processing, was significantly associated with time 4 invented spelling, suggesting that both orthographic and phonological processes are involved in invented spelling. These results indicate that this measure of invented spelling may be an optimal diagnostic tool for researchers and educators interested in predicting subsequent reading ability/disability in early development. Invented spelling administered in early kindergarten may be an even better predictor of subsequent decoding skills than are traditional phonological awareness tasks, for American school children.     

Learning From Our Mistakes: Improvements in Spelling Lead to Gains in Reading Speed

The present study tested the hypothesis that underlying orthographic representations vary in completeness within the individual, which is manifested in both spelling accuracy and reading speed. Undergraduate students were trained to improve their spelling of difficult words. Word reading speed was then measured for these same words, allowing for a direct evaluation of whether improvements in spelling would bring about faster reading speeds. Results were clear: Spelling accuracy and reading speed were strongly related across and within participants. Most important, words that improved in spelling accuracy were read more rapidly at posttest than words that did not show improvement in spelling. These results provide direct evidence showing that the quality of orthographic representations, as indexed by spelling accuracy, directly relates to reading speed. This is consistent with the lexical quality hypothesis and highlights the relevance of spelling in literacy acquisition.